The ice dragon of Kiri
by immortal1145
Summary: After being betrayed by kakashi at the Valley of the end, Naruto discovers all the hidden secrets and he makes his first steps towards his freedom. Watch as he becomes the ice dragon of Kiri. I own nothing, first chapters from sinisteruto's broken fox and caring cat. Some jutsu belong to Wacko12 and th4n
1. Chapter 1

_**The ice dragon**_

 **Chapter 1**

"K-kakashi s-sensei, w-why!" shouted the blonde in a weird combination of anger, fear, hate, and sadness. This Blonde is none other than Uzumaki Naruto, also known as the kyubi jinchuuriki or otherwise just "The kyubi" or "Demon Brat". He is a 12 year old boy with sunkissed, spiky blonde hair with deep blue eyes and three wisker like markings on each cheek. He seems to be wearing a hideous orange and blue jumpsuit, but mostly orange with a weapons pouch attached to his right thigh. His normally innocent and sparkling blue eyes are now as dark and cloudy as a thunderstorm, raging in a battle between a collection of negative and painful emotions.

"What a demon, to think that he can actually speak even with my Raikiri pearcing his lungs, if not because of the damage, than the raw electrical currents I'm streaming throughout his body should have hindered his ability to even speak, much less scream so loud." Thought the above average height Jonin now identified as Hatake Kakashi with white gravity defying spiky hair and one dark eye, with his left eye being red with three tamoe. The man is dressed in the standard jonin outfit with a green flack jacket and black gloves with metal plates attached for protection.

"One of the first lessons I taught you was to always look underneath the underneath, Naruto, you should have seen this coming a mile, no, a million miles away. I expected you to at least have anticipated this, I find it hard to believe that someone who has lived the kind of life you have led could be so naive and ignorant, to think that a blind fool like you wanted to be hokage is an insult to the title itself.."

"Shut Up! T-teme...Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon and betray their comrades are worse than trash, wasn't that also one of the first lessons you taught us, ne Kakashi SENSEI!" screamed the blonde in anguish and hate, having started off in barely decipherable whispers.

"Very true, I'm actually glad that you could remember this lesson, Naruto, that is exactly why I am doing this, I am taking out the trash that is holding our team back, so that we may reach our full potential." Said the copy nin without so much as a flinch from the jab from his student, soon to be former student.

"Cough Cough, what..~cough~ are you talking about?" asked the blonde in between coughing fits.

"Naruto, let us travel back down memory lane, do you remember when I was defeated by Zabuza, when he captured me in his water prison, tell me, did you honestly believe that me, The Legendary Copy Ninja, could have lost a battle so easily, without even at least injuring my opponent, especially after i had promised Sasuke that I would not fail to protect my comrades?" asked the copy cat, resisting the urge to smirk at the horrified look of recognition on the blonde's eyes.

"You..You...what do you mean?" asked the blonde, adopting an incredulous facial expression.

"And here I was thinking you had put 2 and 2 together, maybe I overestimated your limited IQ. Naruto, the person that was captured in the water prison was my shadow clone, which I had substituded myself with when Zabuza kicked me into the water, you get it right...I had counted on your promise to never run away that you made to yourself and your chronic need to show off, especially against Sasuke, your rival, and for Sakura, your crush. That desire for attention together with your stupidity would have driven you to attack first and head on and get yourself killed, imagine my surprise when I found myself having to switch back with my clone because you actually turned out to have a brain and rescued my shadow clone from Zabuza's water prison." Said the White haired Jonin, giving the blonde one his unnerving, intense stares.

"You...You were trying to get me killed and than save Sakura chan and Sasuke!" asked/stated the blonde in disbelief, his mask slowly but surely crumbling from the revelation.

'How is he still alive, how is he still even conscious, and asking me all these questions?' Thought Kakashi absent mindedly.

"Correct, why else did you think I only taught you the tree climbing excercise in wave country when I could have taught you all much earlier? Why do you think I entered you into the chuunin exams when you clearly were not ready for it? Why do you think I pawned you off to that useless Jonin Ebisu to train for the finals, Why do you think I taught Sasuke the chidori?" Asked the copy nin rhetorically.

"I thought..."

"Never mind, let me answer for you, it was a rhetorical question anyway.." stated Kakashi mockingly.

"I tried to get you killed by zabuza, but you came up with a plan and outwitted me. I didn't teach the team anything prior to that because i had been hoping to get rid of you first, I would than use your death as an excuse for the sudden change of attitude towards my team and train the remaining two to the best of my abilities. But I failed and you survived despite my efforts." Said Kakashi, pausing momentarily to give the blonde a chance to digest the information.

"I than entered the three of you into the chuunin exams, but not before teaching Sasuke numerous fire techniques from my arsenal and how to cast a genjutsu and copy techniques with his sharingan, and not before teaching Sakura trap making and setting and some low level genjutsu and how to heal moderate injuries without the use of chakra, once again I had hoped you would die in the exams because you were unprepared, and once again you defied the odds and came out on top against my best wishes." Said the copy nin venomously.

"But there was still hope when you were paired with Neji, the genious of the Hyuga clan who had raw skill, intelligence, and jonin level taijutsu and speed, and most importantly, who had displayed homicidal behaviour against his cousin and anyone who challenged his beliefs. I knew he would try to kill you if you were to be paired together in battle as you would obviously challenge his beliefs against what he did to his cousin, who also happens to be your classmate and friend, imagine my luck when it turned out you would be the first to fight, and against him of all people. So I pawned you off to a weak Jonin who hated your guts. But once again you saw through my efforts like the demon fox trickster you are and sought yourself a better teacher who taught you how to access your powers, and you used them to defeat Neji." Said Kakashi, glaring daggers at the demon for making a fool out of him like that.

"By this point I was confident in my suspicions, I had always known that that happy go lucky Hokage wana be attitude was fake, and looking underneath the underneath, I realised exactly why you wanted to be Hokage, you wanted to infiltrate the village hierarchy and destroy us from within to get your revenge, playing the innocent child all the way until you had the power that you required, you were trying to hide your true self, but your ability to not only see through my plans but to counter them so efficiently without looking too suspicious confirmed my thoughts. Even your win against Kiba was a well thought out strategy, using his nose against him to create an opening, under normal circumstances, people would write it off as the idiot naruto getting a stroke of luck, but I, being your sensei, and knowing how you countered my plans knew better, this was all part of your genious plan wasn't it, why else would you pretend to be something you're not?" asked Kakashi out loud, though the question was not directed at anyone in particular.

All the while Kakashi had been talking, Naruto had been silently listening, too shocked to react or say anything in retaliation, who wouldn't be in his place, how could one have expected someone they considered family to have thought so ill of them all this time, to have been deceived like this?

"But I had already anticipated everything you would do, demon fox!" snapped Kakashi hatefully, breaking the blonde from his stupor.

"On the off chance that you survived your battle against Neji, I had decided to teach Sasuke my prized technique, the Chidori, I knew that Sasuke would try to kill you at some point in order to activate his mangyeko sharingan so that he could gain the strength to defeat his brother, but I knew he would need a trump card to defeat a demon trickster like you, so i taught him the chidori, using the excuse that he would need it to defeat the unstable and homicidal Sabaku no Gaara, this way, he would stand a chance against you, it would also be poetic in a sense, if my technique would be used to end your existence."

"But once again you saw through my plan again, after witnessing the power of the chidori when Sasuke used it against Gaara, you convinced Jiraiya sama to teach you an equally powerful technique, the rasengan. When I found out about this when you fought Sasuke at the hospital, I was angry at Jiraiya sama and confronted him about teaching you the rasengan and almost gave my cover away, that's when I realised what you were doing, trying to expose me to get rid of me, but indirectly, frustrating me until I started acting out of character without even realising it, which could have had the result of people starting to become suspicious of my behavior. You would than use your current influence over the Hokage, Jiraiya sama, and the clan heirs to make me look like the guilty one, painting yourself as the innocent boy with a burden, who only wants to protect his precious people. When I realised how much control you already had over the village, the village that Minato sensei sacrificed his life to protect, I knew what I had to do, which is why we are where we are at this moment." Said Kakashi, ending his long explanation.

"You bastard, you won't get away with this! Baa chan will know, she'll know that you're lying, and Ero sannin will investigate, me and Baa chan have a bond, she is like the mother I never had, and ero sannin treats me like his own son, they'll know what happened, you're going to rot in jail you bastard!" shouted the blonde, steeling his resolve with that trade mark defiant look in his eyes, a look that silently infuriated the copy nin.

"Mother you never had? Father you never had you say, you don't know anything about them do you? About your so called God Father and God mother who abandoned you and wanted nothing to do with you? Or your twin sister and mother who deserted you on the day that you were born, do you...Naruto...?" asked Kakashi, silently revelling in the horror and grief stricken look on the blonde's face.

"I'm an orphan. My mother and father died as heroes in the kyubi attack, they loved me...t-they...they wanted to be with me, to raise me b-but..but they died ..unfortunately, that is what jiji said, so I know, I know you're lying, jiji wouldn't lie to me teme!" said the blonde softly, hyperventilating, whether because of emotional or physical distress, Kakashi honestly did not know, maybe a combination of the two.

"When you asked him what their names were, what did Sandaime sama tell you? When you asked him why everyone hated you, what did Sandaime sama tell you, huh...Naruto...?" asked Kakashi.

"Jiji didn't know their names, the records were lost during the destruction. W-what does that have to do with anything, who cares about that! You know about my parents? I want to know about my parents, tell me about my parents, teme sensei!" screamed the blonde in frustration and anticipation, maybe even a little bit of trepidation as well, fearing what horrible truths might be uncovered.

"You fool, how do you know if someone is a hero or not if you do not even know who they are? Did you honestly think it is possible for a Kage to not know the names of his own shinobi, his own employees? Naruto, I used to be one of the A.N.B.U that were occassionally assigned to watch over you, so i know better than anyone how many times you asked the sandaime why everyone hated you, he blatently lied to you every time you asked that question,. If he could lie to you about something that important, what made you think he wouldn't lie to you about your lineage? If it was up to him, if Mizuki had not told you, you still wouldn't know why everyone hated you, he never intended for you to ever find out anything?" said Kakashi venomously, causing the blonde to almost flinch at the hate filled eyes directed at him.

"No...he wouldn't...Sandaime jiji said he loved me like his grandson..he was the only one there for me.."

"Of course he was, demon fox...!" cut in Kakashi.

"He had to determine whether you had regained your memories or if you had any hold over your powers, but he couldn't behave too suspiciously, he couldn't directly interrogate you either, that would render the law he made about your existence irrelevant. So he did the next best thing, he earned your trust by pretending to be your grand father figure, at the time, the only interactions you had experienced with other people were negative memories. He would then be your light in the darkness, the person who treated you kindly and cared about you, the person you admired and wanted to emulate, the person you could confide in. This way, it would make it easy for him to monitor you, or rather, to monitor the seal and determine whether you were a threat or not, you get it right...no one has ever truly cared about you..." said Kakashi with absolute sincerity that not even the blonde, who was bordering on complete denial could ignore.

By now endless tears were freely flowing from the blonde's eyes, staining his cheeks and even his torn jump suit. He couldn't believe it, this man, this man had to be lying, this sounded too much like a movie, or a play or something, things like this didn't happen in real life did they? But how could he prove it to be lie? It made too much sense to be anything but the truth. But than...if this was true, what did that say about him? Was he really so stupid, so desperate that he couldn't even see what was always in front of him? He should have known better shouldn't he have? What had made him so special, that out of all the orphans in the orphanage, that the Hokage of all people would pay special attention to him, to go to such great lengths to befriend him? He should have suspected something, but he was arrogant, he had simply thought that the hokage had recognised his awesomeness, and that if the hokage could see it, than he could make everyone else see it too. What a gullable fool he was...but wait a minute...didn't Kakashi say something about his family, he wanted to at least know about that before he died, no..he didn't want to know about it, he needed to know about it, damn that Kakashi, he would force it out of him, if only he could tap in to some youki. But he couldn't for some reason, ever since he looked into that teme's sharingan ...

"I-I'm tired, please...just tell me...tell me about my mother, and sister, why did they abandon me, a-and who is my God mother,and God father? Why did they abandon me...cough cough...?" asked the blonde, not even looking at the Cyclops anymore, his eyes looking at the ground with his spiky, blonde bangs covering his eyes darkly, his forehead protector having slipped off of his head during his battle with his best...former best friend.

He could feel it, he was dying, his body was so...numb, yes, he was numb, he couldn't even feel his limbs anymore. His heart rate had slowed down and he was sure that the internal damage he had suffered would hard press even kyubi's healing ability to keep him alive.

"Your mother left you on the day you were born, demon. She took your sister away with her so that she can train her to be a strong kunoichi, come to think about it, they are supposed to come back two years from now." Said Kakashi.

"Why..w-why didn't they take me with them?" asked the blonde.

"To protect Naruko, if people knew that Kushina sama was raising the demon, than they would hate her too, and by extension, they would hate Naruko for being the sister of the demon, to protect her daughter, she decided that she would leave the village and come back when Naruko was strong enough to protect herself from anyone, and strong enough to protect her home village, just like her father did." Explained Kakashi patiently.

"F-father?" asked the blonde curiously.

"Yes, Namikaze Minato, my sensei, The Yondaime Hokage, otherwise known as the koroi no senko."

"W-what! Impossible, the Yondaime is my hero, the man i look up to the most, he would never seal a demon in his own son!" denied the blonde with renewed vigour.

"It was a no doubt a difficult decision, but sensei had trusted that your god father, Jiraya sama would take care of you, and as a fellow seal master, he would be able to ensure that the kyubi stayed locked away. Your mother, Uzamaki Kushina left you in her cousin's care, Senju Tsunade, but she also abandoned you, no one wanted to raise a demon it seems." Said Copy Ninja.

"Y-you keep speaking as if I'm the demon itself, and yet you were patient and generous enough to tell me about my lineage, why, if you truly believe I'm the demon, than why did you find it necessary to explain all of this to me?" asked the blonde softly. He couldn't find the strength to shout, scream, or curse anymore, his desire to hear the truth, to receive some form of closure was the only thing keeping him alive at the moment.

"Contrary to what you might believe, I'm not killing you out of revenge, at least it is not just revenge against you, demon.."

"Then why?" asked Naruto, not understanding at all.

"I cannot bare to see you use the body of my sensei's son like this, to watch Naruto suffer at your hands, by killing you, Naruto will be able to find peace in the afterlife, he will be reunited with his father and be freed from your evil, that is why I have taken the liberty to explain things to you, Naruto's spirit is still locked somewhere inside you, this way, he can at least know the truth about his family before he passes on, now die demon fox...Lightning Style: Lightning Blade Current!" said Kakashi, fully activating the modified version of his signature technique.

"GWAAH!" screamed Naruto in pain and anguish. He couldn't believe how much pain he was in, if he thought being pierced by the lightning blade was painful, than this was ten time worse. He could feel the electrical currents not just in the area surrounding his wound, but all throughout his body, it felt like every organ in his body...no, never mind that, it felt like every cell in his body was being electrocuted.

"Rest in peace...Naruto." whispered Kakashi before he kicked the blonde into the river, right between the statues of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara.

'I've done it, finally. I've killed the kyubi, freed your son, and protected the village, just like you did all your life, Minato sensei...' Thought Kakashi, feeling a mixture of relief, sadness and nostalgia.

"Argh!" grunted Kakashi in pain originating from his sharingan eye, it was the most burning sensation he had ever felt in his life, but just as it came, it was almost immediately gone in nothing but 5 seconds, making him question if it was ever there in the first place.

'No...something is different, my eye is draining a lot more chakra than it usually does.' Thought Kakashi, who had to suppress a gasp from leaving his throat when he looked at his reflection in the water. Something was different about his reflection, more specifically, something was different with his sharingan. Whereas before it was red with three tamoe , it now looked like the tamoe had been connected to form a black, three pronged shuriken.

'M-mangyeko Sharingan, but how, I'm not an Uchiha...' Thought Kakashi in bewilderment.

'I cannot let anyone find out about this, at least not yet.' Thought the cycloptic ninja as he deactivated his ultimate sharingan, covering up his eye with his forehead protector.

"Sasuke, we'll meet again, I'm sure of it. I'll save you from Orochimaru, I won't fail Obito, we'll definately meet again." Thought Kakashi out loud before he disappeared with a leaf shunshuin.

 **Mindscape...**

 **"That fool will bring the end of of both of us, damn it not even I can heal something like this!"** Thought the Kyubi behind its cage in Naruto's mindscape, which looked like a giant room in what appears to be a sewer system with giant golden bars held closed by a small paper with the kanji for seal on it.

 **'Curse that one eyed fool! Being inside so much water is only making things worse, to think that a mere mortal could generate so much electricity with chakra alone, I won't be able to repair this level of damage, I would have to destroy and rebuild every single cell in his body to do it, a process that would surely kill him...ooooh...kukuku...that's it of course, how could I have been so stupid, hehehe...ehehehehe!"** laughed the giant fox mentally.

 **"Destroy and rebuild? Hah! Why should I risk doing that when I could just modify this pitiful body of his, all I have to do is use my youki to mutate his cells, I could use the electricity coursing through his body as a catalyst for the experiment and modify his cells so that his body can act as a freezer, kukuku...not only will my host survive, but he'll gain a pseudo bloodline limit too. Hehehe...it is only fitting, shukaku gave his container supremacy in sand manipulation, also, from what I've seen with my previous hosts, nibi gave her host the manipulation of the blue flames, water manipulation and genjutsu for the sanbi, lava for the yonbi, boil release for the gobi, acid and bubble jutsu for the rokubi, dust release for the nanabi, and ink for the hachibi, and soon,complete dominion over all forms of water and wind for my host, hehehe...ehehehehehe!"** laughed the kyubi , a laugh full of unrestrained joy and malice.

 **"Still, I have to let the fool die for at least 120 seconds and then revive him before the shinigami collects our souls..."**

"What! Are you fucking stupid, you know if you kill the fool, I'll die too right?"asked a voice kyubi found both amusing and annoying at the same time.

 **"How nice of you to join me, true Naruto, or should I say, Dark Naruto."** Said the giant fox indifferently, looking at the boy standing in front of it now identified as Dark Naruto, a boy with bright blonde, spiky hair, three whisker like lines on each cheek, manacing eyes with black sclera and yellow irises. The boy is dressed in an orange jump suit with blue ninja sandals, and a kunai pouch on his right leg.

"I asked you a question?" said the boy calmly, having regained his composure. He figured that there must have been something more to what the kyubi said, if he and that fool died, than the shinigami would come and collect Kyu, and there was no way Kyu would allow that, no matter what, he knew that well enough.

 **"Fool, you signed a contract with the toads, that stupid pervert will just reverse summon you at any time he pleases, I will not allow that, I hate that pitiful village more than even Uchiha Madara, we will certainly not be going back there, if you die, than your connection to the toads will be severed, that way, we can go somewhere to get stronger, to prepare for our vengeance."** Explained Kyubi.

"Vengeance, you think that happy go lucky fool will listen to anything you say? I bet he'll just go crawling back to that hell hole, thinking that they will all of a sudden bow down to him and lick his ass because of the bloodline limit you plan to create for him, for us." Said Dark Naruto with undisguised disgust and sarcasm.

 **"That is why I have decided to give you back to him, I initially took you away to weaken my host, using you, all I would have had to do was wait for his darkest and most vulnerable moment, I would than latch on to you and use you to manipulate and control his feelings, to overwhelm him with my hate and take over his body, but now I see what a mistake that was, my ambitions almost got us killed."**

"What! I thought you said you would help me get control.!" Asked Dark Naruto.

 **"I lied, get over it, I'm the kyubi, what did you expect?"**

"Tche...I already suspected as much, but I didn't care, anything is better than letting that fool stay in control."

"True, that is why I have decided that you two should be one again, this way, the two of you will fuse to become the real Naruto, that part that is you will ensure that you don't go back to Konoha...damnit, two minutes is up, I'm going to revive this body before the shingami comes for us, I will than bring that idiot that almost got us killed back here and you're going to fuse with him, are you ready...?"

"Of course I am, just hurry up." Said the blonde nonchalantly.

"Hmm..."

 **Timeskip 2 minutes**

"So, it is finally done huh, hurry up and bring the idiot down here, we need to talk some serious business..." said Dark Naruto.

 **"I'm already on it, and stop ordering me around!"** replied Kyubi in its regular booming voice.

"Tche...whatever..." replied the black eyed blonde, causing a tick mark to appear on the foxes head.

"He's here, I'll let you take care of things from here..." said the kyubi dismissively.

"Great, what does that stupid fox want now, can't he just let me die in peace!" said the blonde irritably.

"Yo...loser! You and I are gonna have a little talk!" said Dark Naruto angrily, cutting out the blue eyed blonde from his thoughts.

Naruto stopped shortly at that, why did he stop? Well... for one, that was definitely not the voice of the Kyubi, they had only spoken once, but he remembered a loud booming voice, not this sarcastic, arrogant and well...not demonic or booming voice. Looking up in order to identify this mind infiltrator, naruto's figurative heart almost stopped in surprise.

"What the hell! Where's the bastard fox! Oh no Oh no, you're the fox aren't you! How did you get out of the cage...why do you look like...Oh no Oh no...Kakashi teme was right wasn't he, I'm possessed, I'm...the kyubi!" screamed the blonde, pointing an accusing finger the black eyed blonde.

Before the blue eyed blonde could continue with his idiotic rant, a dark red light illuminated the other side of the cage, displaying the nine tailed demon fox in all its glory.

 **"Relax fool, I haven't escaped...yet."** said the fox with an evil glint in its eyes, complemented by its razor sharp teethed grin, causing the blonde shudder, and not in a good way either.

"Y-you bastard fox, if you're still behind the cage, than...who is this?" asked the blonde, squinting his eyes in scrutiny.

"And why does he look like me...?" asked the blue eyed blonde.

"We haven't been introduced yet have we? Allow me to rectify that, my name is Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto, pleasure ...no...displeasure to meet your aquintance." said the black eyed blonde sarcastically.

"What! That's not true, I am Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage Dattebayo!" exclaimed the blue eyed blonde.

"Not true, you're not Uzumaki Naruto, nor are you the future hokage, you're Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto, the future destroyer of konoha, I know this because I am you..." said Dark Naruto with conviction.

"No way, if you are me, than who am I? And if I am you, than who are you? And if we are one and the same, than who are we?" asked the blue eyed blonde, squinting his eyes, a small confused frownon his face.

"Y-you idiot! That doesn't even make sense!" said Dark Naruto, snarling in anger at his doppelganger's stupidity.

"Hey who you're calling an idiot y-you..whoever you are!"

"Argh! I just told you who I am two minutes ago you imbecile!" shouted Dark Naruto , mentally blocking the urge to pull on his hair in frustration.

"Yeah, well you're a..."

 **"Shut up both of you morons!"** said kyubi furiously, blasting the twins with its killing intent.

 **"Now listen up Naruto for we don't have much time. When the Yondaime sealed me inside of you, I was angry and frustrated that i would once again spend a life time of imprisonment, so I sought to enact my revenge on the man who sealed me, by overpowering and taking over his son, devouring his soul in the process."**

"Baka Fox! I don't have time for your..."

 **"Shut up and listen you mongrel!"** said the fox, focussing all of his malicious force on the blue eyed blonde, effectively shutting him up in the process.

 **"In order to do that, I couldn't afford to have a strong host, I needed you to be weak. So I took away a part of yourself, I took away your darkness, your hatred, I took away that part of your soul during the sealing, before the seal had fully settled in. I would than use this part of your soul to store all the negative emotions you had and build it up to form a powerful hatred that would rival even my own. This would be my leverage over you, all I would have to do is wait for the darkest and most painful moment in your life, where you would have no choice but to rely on power. This would also be the day that I escaped, I would than use the hatred and anger stored inside Dark Naruto to manipulate you into removing the seal, effectively turning you against yourself. Once the seal was removed, I would than devour you and be reborn. This was my ultimate escape plan, but after today, I realised that it was too much of a risk, weakening you will not benefit either of us if you die before I escape, so I have decided to give back what is rightfully yours, your other half. I've decided that if I can't escape, than I will make you the strongest container there ever was, you will be feared and respected amongst all the elemental nations, this way, my name and legacy will live on through you." Explained the kyubi with with surprising sincerity, as sincere as a demon can be anyway.**

To say that the blue eyed blonde was shocked would be an understatement. Wasn't it bad enough that everyone tried to deny him the strength and recognition he had tried to gain, wasn't it bad enough that everyone he ever loved and respected had betrayed him and played him for a fool, wasn't it bad enough that the teachers at the academy tried to subortage his education, wasn't it bad enough that his own sensei had plotted to kill him and almost succeeded? Only to find out that even the kyubi had tried to delay his progress by taking away part of himself...what...?

"Hey wait a minute, how does taking away my darkness and hatred make me weak? Doesn't that make me better off?' asked the blonde uncertainly.

"Let me take it from here Kyu..." said Dark Naruto

 **"Whatever..."** said kyubi indifferently.

"Listen here fool, you are the light and I am the darkness. There are both bad and good qualities about your light. The good qualities are that you are kind, loving and caring, you always want to help those who have suffered, those who are in pain, even at your own expense, especially your loved ones. These are no doubt good and admirable traits and can be used as a reason and source of strength...but..." paused Dark Naruto, his neutral expression transforming into that of disgust.

"But what...?" asked the blue eyed blonde in anticipation.

"Too much of anything is a bad thing. Because you have so much light, you blindly and willingly trust anyone who gives you a smile, you are so desperate for love and affection that you will except it from anyone. You trust people so much that it makes it so easy for people to deceive, use and manipulate you. Because of this, you attract the wrong people, you're like a dead corpse that has been left to rot in the wild, vultures flock towards you from all direction at the smell of your flesh. A scavenging hyena will tell you that he is a bunny and you will buy that obvious lie because you believe everyone is like you, you believe that people would never lie to you simply because you yourself wouldn't do it to them, that is so stupid it makes me want to puke my guts out..."

"So what! Are you saying that I should just hate and destroy everything, that I should be like Kakashi teme, or worse, Hebi Teme!" screamed the blue eyed blonde angrily.

"Don't be stupid! I never said I was perfect either, darkness is born within a person's heart when a person has suffered and has come to know true pain. Darkness breeds maturity, perception and paranoia. This is because darkness is associated with pain and suffering. In order to overcome their pain, people face many trials and tribulations, and these trials and tribulations are the things that force a person to mature at a faster pace. But, most people in these situations have been betrayed by people at some point, perhaps even those betrayals might be related to their suffering,and to avoid being caught in similar situations, these people learn to observe every situation with strict scrutiny , hence the perception and paranoia. Maturity, perception, and paranoia, these are the characteristics associated with a quality shinobi, these are the good characteristics that I have acquired from my darkness."

"You make it sound like darkness is a good thing?"

"Everything on this earth exists for a reason, so yes, darkness is a good thing, but it is not enough on its own. Too much darkness can lead to hatred, cruelty, evil, and ultimately..destruction. If you have seen the world for what it truly is, and you only have darkness in your heart than you will hate it even more instead of loving it, instead of redeeming or saving the world, you might choose to rather destroy it and end its sorry existence. Brother..." said Dark Naruto, now standing right in front of the blue eyed blonde with his right hand gripping his shoulder in a comforting gesture.

"You have felt it have you not? The emptiness inside of you, but because you did not know the source of that emptiness, you threw yourself at everyone you could get your hands on, anyone who would show you the slightest bit of affection, anything to fill that emptiness, that missing piece of yourself, but no matter how many 'precious people' you attained for yourself, you still felt empty inside, like a part of you was missing. Is it not so...brother?" asked Dark Naruto.

"H-how do you know? How do I get rid of that emptiness?" asked the blue eyed blonde desperately.

"I know because I have felt it too, I even sided with Kyu against you because of it, but nothing ever worked, my darkness, my hatred, and all my negative emotions are consuming me. To fill that gap in our hearts, we need to work together, we need to become one again, as we were meant to be, I need your light, and you need my darkness, so what do you say, let us help each other...brother?" asked Dark Naruto with a smile on his face, a small full of unexpected but sincere affection.

"You, that..you're way cooler than I thought..sniff...sniff...I..I want to be whole again, I wnt us to work together, to be one with each other, let us do it..sniff...brother..." answered the blue eyed blonde in between sobs, also gripping his brother's shoulder as a display of understanding and comfort, with what is probably the first true smile of his life.

In that instant, when mutual understanding had been reached by the two alter egos, a bright light surrounded the duo as their chest were pushed together by an invisible force. Forcing the duo to fuse with each other.

Kyubi watched the scene in front of it with interest, waiting patiently for the light to disappear so that he could meet the True Namikaze Uzamaki Naruto.

 **"How do you feel, Naruto?"** asked Kyubi, the light having died down, the single blonde instead of two standing before its might proof of the success of the fusion.

"I have never felt better..." said the blonde thoughtfully.

 **"You seem distracted, what is it boy?"** asked the Kyubi with interest and..was it concern...no it couldn't be, that is what the blonde convinced himself of in any case.

"You gave me some your memories, I know about the Uzumaki clan, Uzumaki Mito, and more about my m...Uzumaki Kushina, and Uchiha Madara...?" explained/asked the blonde.

 **"Yes you do, I gave some of my memories of the time I was sealed inside those two women with Dark Naruto, so that you may have them when the fusion was complete, you should now also know everything about the modifications I did to your body."**

"Not that I don't appreciate your efforts, but why? The bloodline limit, I can even understand why you gave me info about my clan, sealing arts and barrier arts are a very powerful tool, now that I know I have a talent for them, I'll be sure to learn as much as I can about the subject. I also understand that you want me to kill Madara. My question though, is why did you give me the info about those two women, you rarely do anything that is of no benefit to you."

 **"Hmm...you're still naive, can't you see that anything that benefits you, will ultimately benefit me as well. If we wish to be the strongest, then we must let nothing hold us back, you needed the closure, so that you may be able to move forward. If I didn't give you this information, then you would have wasted time that could have been spent getting stronger in your efforts to clear the mistery that is your past."** Explained the strongest of the bijuu as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I see, thank you."

 **Real world**

Naruto woke up and left the water, as he saw the Rain he smirked and started going through some handsigns for the kuchiyose no jutsu, he was ready to use the kyubi's newest gifted to him, a summoning contract for the fox clan. In a puff of smoke he disappeared.

 **In Konoha...**

"What do you want me to do with this, Sarutob i Sensei?" asked Tsunade monotously. She appears to be a beautiful woman in her late twenties or early thirties with long blonde hair tied into two long pigtails, brown eyes and more than a handful of breasts that seem too hard to ignore, anti perverts included. She is dressed in dark blue pants and a grey, tight fitting and sleeveless top, giving rise to the illusion that her breasts might pop out at any given moment.

Sarutobi Hiruzen stared at his student silently, contemplating how to start the almost inevitable argument that might ensure courtesy of his stubborn student whilst blowing a few puffs of smoke from his pipe. No doubt he would have to choose his words carefully here, and maybe a great degree of manipulation might be needed to get things to go his way. The village had suffered a big blow, losing the last loyal Uchiha to Orochimaru was not something to be taken lightly, Orochimaru couldn't be allowed to gain such a powerful tool like the sharingan, he didn't know anyone that could stop him if that happened. What made matters even worse was losing Naruto kun and the Kyubi, how could Tsunade have been foolish enough as to send a wet behind the ear genin squad on such a high level mission was beyond his comprehension. He understood that she had had faith in Minato's son, so did he, the boy had always and consistently thrived against odds that would have crushed the spirit of even some of the war veterans in this ninja world, but he just couldn't justify the gamble that Tsunade had made, or maybe he was just angry that Konoha had lost its most important weapon, he himself was not sure what the true source of his discontent was.

These were the thoughts of Sarutobi Hiruzen, a 68 year old man with grey/white, spiky hair with a small, white goatee, he has numerous wrinkles and a few liver spots on his face, and is dressed in a long, white robe with black ninja sandals. Many had been completely shocked when they had seen him walking the streets in broad daylight, thinking him to be a ghost. He had been later forced to give a speech to the konoha populace, vaguely describing the details pertaining to his false death, of course a much more detailed explanation was given to the shinobi council. He had explained how he used the Fourth's dead demon consuming seal to seal away Orochimaru's arms, and the price that was required for the use of the jutsu, the price being that the shinigami would devour the user's soul.

He then went on to explain how he had used the Uzamaki clan's blood clone, which the Shodaime had listed in the forbidden scroll of jutsu, during the time that the resurrected Nidaime Hokage had used his Bringer Of Darkness Technique. The blood clone, similar to a shadow clone, split the user's chakra in half and had a complete personality of its own. Hiruzen had theorised that since the clone had the same chakra as him, and an independent personality, than it should also mean that the clone actually contained a part of his soul, as further proven by the fact that, should he dispel the clone, not only would the chakra used to create the clone be returned to the user, but the memories of the clone as well. He had than delved into the medical field, from which had been stated the requirements for something to be considered a living being, and to be more specific, human . It had to have actual organs, had to respire, excrete, consume, digest, have a soul amongst other things. This is where he had found a loop hole in the shingami's contract terms, because a great amount of blood had been used, the blood clone was an actual clone, having real organs and having real dna, it could eat, excete, respire etc, and it had half of his soul in it and an independent personality, it was a true living being in its own right, although it still had to take commands from him, nonetheless the shingami had no choice but to acknowledge his theory and had in fact complemented him, praising him for being only the second man to ever outwit him, though refusing to divulge the name of the other person to have escaped his clutches. Still, the demi god had warned that he would take his whole soul regardless if he tried pulling a stunt like that again.

"Those are the pictures and stats of Haruno Sakura and Kurama Yakumo." Stated Hiruzen in a matter of fact tone.

"I know who they are! I don't have time to play your stupid mind games you old fool! What do you want me to do with this, with these little girls!" asked/screamed the senju princess, trying and almost failing to hold back her violent tendencies against the old goat.

She didn't understand, couldn't he see she was hurting, couldn't he see her suffering? Her whole reason for returning here was dead, no, he wasn't just her reason, he had been her last hope, she had put her faith in him, faith that he would succeed her and be the best Hokage ever, faith that he would be able to defy and break the curse of that necklace. Couldn't he see that in naruto, she had not only lost her reason for returning, but she had lost her son in everything but blood, did he really think now was the time for him to be playing these mindless games with her! After all that had happened, she didn't even know if she wanted this job anymore, not after kakashi returned with naruto's forehead protector and that necklace, not after the partying and celebrations that had ensured in the village right after she had announced his death.

That had made her furious, prompting her to reveal his heritage just to spite them, announcing that their demon whose death they were celebrating was the one and only son of their beloved Yondaime Hokage, even providing the evidence for them to see for themselves. She had even asked them how it is that they couldn't see the resemblance between the two.

She had however soon regretted her decision to reveal such information, because Ichiraku Ayame had been murderous when she heard that. The girl had accused her and the village hierarchy as the guilty parties for naruto's suffering for hiding such vital information, saying that she, as Naruto's surrogate sister knew better than anyone that naruto, more than anything else had suffered because of his lack of identity, that the boy had wanted to know more than anything else who his family was, whether they loved or hated him, whether they died or abandoned him? Ayame had claimed that they had no right to hide such information from him, and she had even insisted that had they not hidden that information to the konoha populace, that his life would have turned out a lot better.

Tsunade had chasticed her for her stupidity and argued that if the girl really cared about Naruto as much as she claimed she did, than she would have understood that Iwagakure and possibly Kumogakure would have sent assassins after naruto, as they would have feared his potential, and who knows what other enemies Minato might have had. Of course Ayame would not stand for it, shrugging off the kage level killing intent Tsunade had been directing towards her in the process, arguing that if that was the case, than why did they announce that he had the kyubi, because having the kyubi inside of him made him even more dangerous to konoha's enemies than being the son of the fourth, since the fox must have been stronger than the fourth if the fourth died in his battle against it, while the kyubi still lived. She had also argued that if the law about the fox had kept Naruto's jinchuuriki status from being leaked outside the village, than a similar law about him being the fourth's son would have been enough to contain that information while giving naruto the sense of identity he had craved and obliterating the hate that had been directed towards him in the process.

This had served to turn the tables against Tsunade and the villagers had felt heavily offended and had started to riot not only against her but the whole konoha hierarchy, but especially her and the Sandaime Hokage. Though, Ayame had been quick to rebuke the citizens too, claiming that they had no right to riot since they shouldn't have needed to know that he was the son of the Fourth in order to treat her little brother like he deserved to be. She had than told everyone how disgusted she was in this whole village and she, along with her father had stated their intentions to leave the village and find another place to live as soon as they could. Tsunade had gone home and cried herself to sleep for hours in grief, shame, and regret afterwards, Ayame's words had cut through her like a knife through butter.

As if matters were not bad enough, princess Koyuki, Tazuna the Mayor, bridge builder, and now current CEO of Wave Trade Corporations, and Daimyo Toki of Bird Country had somehow found out about the boy's treatment, probably from the foreign merchants that had been trading in the village at the time his death had been announced. They had immediately refused to have any association with the place that cursed their Hero to such a terrible childhood, cutting all ties with the village hidden in the leaves. It is needless to say that things were not looking good for Tsunade and her village, if things carried on spiralling downwards like this, than she would surely be destined to be known as the worst Kage in all of Konoha's history.

"Tsunade…Tsunade…..TSUNADE!" shouted Hiruzen, effectively breaking the Senju Princess from her depressing thoughts.

"What!" shouted the buxom blonde irritably.

"Ahem, as I was saying, I want you to authorise a medical scan on the Kurama clan heiress and see if there isn't anything you can do about her physical condition, I also want you to enlist her under team Kakashi as Sasuke kun's replacement should you be able to heal her. It would also be nice if you could have her also train with Might Guy kun's team and with Yuhi Kurenai on a part time basis. I'm sure I do not need to explain my reasons for this request do I?" asked Hiruzen in his usual grandfatherly tone.

Of course Tsunade had already picked up on Sarutobi's intentions, otherwise she wouldn't have been worthy of the title of Kage if she couldn't figure it out. With the possible extinction of the Uchiha clan, Konoha would lose the overwhelming Genjutsu advantage they had enjoyed against the other great ninja villages in the past wars. If it should happen that they failed to retrieve the sharingan, and by extension, rebuild the Uchiha clan, than it was mandatory that they found a replacement for that role, and the Kurama clan would be the perfect replacement. She also understood the team placement, if the girl trained and practised against someone with the sharingan, like Kakashi, than she might be a key figure later on against Orochimaru, if he was successful in attaining the sharingan for himself, or otherwise she could also help defeat and subdue Uchiha Sasuke if she was involved in any future retrieval missions, missions that would most likely be conducted by team 7. Training with team 8 would give her a fellow genjutsu specialist from which she could bounce off jutsu ideas and training with Guy would allow her to gain the fitness and strength that is required of a shinobi, it would also be to her benefit if she didn't completely rely on her genjutsu, perhaps becoming a taijutsu specialist as a secondary objective would help her become a strong ally for konoha,that is, if she was successful in healing the girl, though she didn't think it would be too hard for her to do it.

"No you don't, but why do you have so much faith in her, she hates Konoha's guts and has been nothing more than a prisoner in her own home, does she even have her powers anymore, according to these records, the Idou demon, which was a manifestation of her powers was destroyed with N-Naruto's help?" asked the Godaime, her voice almost breaking at the mention of that name.

"Wrong, the Idou demon was not a manifestation of her powers, but a manifestation of the darkness in her heart, it was only able to utilise her powers better than her because it knew how to on an instinctual level, not because it was the owner of the power, with the demon now out of the way, Yakumo chan can now, with proper guidance, learn how to properly utilise her abilities." Explained Hiruzen.

"So we should give a person who hates our guts the opportunity to gain access to the power she needs to destroy us?" asked Tsunade with bitter sarcasm.

"Don't be childish Tsunade, do you not understand the other reason for putting this girl in this particular team?" asked Sarutobi.

At the Godaime's blank expression, Hiruzen found himself having to hide his exasperation in order to keep the farcade of a kind, grandfatherly, and honest old man whilst explaining what, in his deceptively manipulative eyes should have been obvious.

"Naruto kun's last wish when he died was to retrieve and save his best friend from Orochimaru's clutches, he gave his all to accomplish this one goal, and was even willing to die trying if need be. Naruto kun was someone…the only person that Yakumo chan held dear to her heart and Naruto kun had promised to save her from her loneliness and help her become a ninja again when he became Hokage. All we have to do is convince her that you are trying to fulfil Naruto kun's promise for her to be a ninja again, and when she finds out about Naruto kun's resolve to rescue Sasuke kun, she will most likely make it her goal to do the same to honour his memory. Furthermore, you already know about Kakashi's strict believes about protecting comrades, by training with Kakashi, she will learn to love and protect her comrades, making it easier for her to form bonds with her team, Kurenai, and Guy's team. When these bonds have formed…"

"Yeh yeh I get it, when those bonds are formed, her hatred for konoha will dissolve, or at the very least, she will not be willing to destroy the village for as long as those people are living here." Cut in Tsunade.

"Yes, you took the words right out of my mouth." Said Hiruzen casually, taking a few puffs out of his pipe.

"And what about this Haruno girl, what should I do with her?" asked the Godaime with a confused expression on her face.

"You are going to take her on as an apprentice, she will excel under your guidance, she fits the requirements to make an excellent future medic, high IQ, good memory and study habits, and excellent chakra control, it would also help her get out of her depression and regain some confidence. You should also consider what Naruto kun…"

"What does Naruto have to do with this, I don't care what you say, I am not taking an apprentice!" snapped Tsunade.

"Remember that this is the girl whom Naruto loved the most, actually, his resolve to return Sasuke kun stemmed from his determination to fulfil his promise to her, in a way, it is not too farfetched to conclude that naruto kun in actual fact sacrificed his life for her sake. How do you think Naruto kun would feel if the love of his life died on a mission because the woman he thought of as a mother was not willing to help her?" asked Hiruzen, making Tsunade look down in shame, which in turn caused him to smirk behind his pipe, she was so gullable and easy to manipulate, especially in the emotional and fragile state she was in, this was child's play, it seemed like he shouldn't have been too worried about the outcome of this conversation.

"This…this is all your fault.." said Tsunade.

"What do mean Tsunad…"

"This is all your fault! If you had not forced me to leave him when he was still a baby, if you hadn't made me abandon him and betray Kushina's trust, than he would have been raised properly, I would have trained him and he would have been able to defeat that stupid Uchiha brat, this is all your fault you old goat! How dare you try to make me out to look like the bad guy here!" screamed Tsunade with endless tears of grief falling freely from her eyes.

"Tsunade…have you forgotten the real reason why I took Naruto kun away from you, did you forget how you almost burned the house down, almost killing both you and the boy in your drunken stupor. Or how you occasionally ditched a baby alone in the house to go drinking and gambling, have you forgotten how many times I warned you to get help for your drinking and gambling problem so that you could take better care of him? How is this not your fault, but my fault instead?" asked Sarutobi, giving the Godaime an ice cold stare, completely ditching his loving grandfather act, this was now the kami no shinobi, the professor and master manipulator, no longer the kind old man.

"Y-you promised, you promised you would take care of him, Kushina chan wrote many letters to me, asking how her naru chan was growing, I did as you said I should, I told her that he was doing just fine, that he was growing well, because that is what you told me in your letters, I was a fool to have believed you, you pathological lyer! Me and Shizune reviewed the medical records in the hospital recently, beatings, poisoning, malnutrition, broken limbs? How can you call that growing up normally you corniving bastard! If I had known then…"

"Then what? You would have taken him, and took him to all the casino's and the pubs you visited! You would have lit another fire and burned both yourselves to death? Tsunade, you were grieving and bitter about your past, Naruto kun reminded you too much of the brother you lost, and the son you could have had with Dan. The fact that Kushina would one day come back and take him away from you was also preventing you from bonding with the child, it was best that you let me take care of him instead."

"Except you didn't you spineless bastard, you left him to the wolves, Naruto was not only physically underdeveloped, but mentally and emotionally as well, how dare you claim to have taken care of him! If I had known I would have at least told Kushina to come back and take care of him!" screamed Tsunade furiously, how dare this old fool act like a saint in spite of his glaring faults and short comings.

"Call back Kushina? As if I would have allowed that, allowing a woman who dreamed of rebuilding Uzushiogakure no saito with her children raise Konoha's jinchuuriki, all she would have done was to extinguish his will of fire with those ambitions. Your will of fire had also been extinguished after your losses, I had to be the one to raise him in order to keep his will burning, why can't you see that, my foolish student, your grandfather and granduncle would have been ashamed of you." Thought Hiruzen.

"Look, we both made our fare share of mistakes, but regrets are not going to change the past, nor is this infighting between us, the best course of action is to honour Naruto kun's memory as best we can, and please remember that you are not the only one that is grieving Naruto kun's death, there are many others, your future student included, and for what it is worth, I'm sorry." Said Hiruzen diplomatically.

"Fine! I will speak to Haruno Sakura tomorrow morning and see what I can do, and what of the third member of the team, and what will happen to the traitor? I propose we collect a sufficient amount of sperm samples from him, and then I shall personally and publicly execute him. We can then allow healthy, and willing woman to carry his seeds and rebuild a new, non traitorous Uchiha clan." Stated Tsunade darkly.

'If that happened, not only would we lose Itachi kun's loyalty but we would also have Itachi kun out to destroy us, and he has a whole organisation of Kage level shinobi to support him, no, killing Sasuke kun is not an option.' Thought Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"I have a better idea Tsunade..." said the old monkey neutrally.

"A better idea, what could be better than that?" asked the Senju princess suspiciously.

"If we kill Sasuke kun, we would be without a battle ready Uchiha for at least twelve years, and who knows if there aren't any spies in the village that could give away information about the little Uchiha infants..."

"What do you suggest than! That he should get away with a slap on the wrist, so that he can just betray us again the first chance he gets! Have you gone senile in your old age!" asked Tsunade furiously.

"Once again I would like to beg you not to be childish, Tsunade. Who do you think I am, a genin?" asked Sarutobi, blasting Tsunade with his kage level KI.

"Alright whatever, you better not say something stupid though, I won't tolerate it, it would serve you well to accept that I don't take orders from you, I am now the Hokage!" said Tsunade, releasing her own KI.

"Fare enough, now as was saying, I would like to suggest that Sasuke kun be inducted into the root program, me and D..."

"What! I knew it, you've gone senile haven't you, you rotten old bag of shit, how long do you think I've been trying to get rid of that illegal organisation!" screamed Tsunade, smashing her fist on the table.

"I have no idea how long you have been trying, but let me say, if you have not succeeded yet, than you are even more pathetic than I thought." Stated Sarutobi darkly, giving the Godaime a chilling stare.

"W-what do you mean, haven't you always despised that program, didn't you spend your entire reign trying to destroy that organisation?" sputtered the busty Kage.

"Oh my foolish little student, have you forgotten who you're talking too? I am The Kami no Shinobi, and I am The Professor , and this is Konohagakure no Saito, did you honestly believe that a whole ninja army could hide itself from me right in the middle of my ninja village? Than Iwa and Kumo might as well bring their own armies here, and hide right under our roof before they destroy us." Stated Hiruzen bitterly, an insulted facial expression etched on his face.

"W-what do you mean...what are you talking about, are you trying to say that you could have ended this all this time but chose to do nothing about it?" asked Tsunade, eyes wide in disbelief.

"The R.O.O.T program is you granduncle's legacy, long before he announced me as the Sandaime Hokage, he had already given me instructions about how to handle things when I took over his seat..."

"What are you talking about!" cut in Tsunade , her knuckles turning white from gripping the edges of the table so hard.

"I would appreciate it if you stopped interrupting me..." scolded the old man.

"Thank you, now Tobirama sama instructed me to allow Danzo to be head of the organisation when I took leadership. After a couple of decades, I was to officially discontinue the organisation, but unofficially allow Danzo to continue with his work. But, in order to keep up the farcade that I was truly against the program, it was required that me and Danzo sacrifice our friendship and that I pretend to stand against everything that Danzo and his R.O.O.T stand for. The Hokage has to inspire greatness in his people,the people must believe that their Hokage loves each and every one of them, that he his kind, just, and caring, it is important that the people have this image of their leader, it is important that the leader inspires courage and love from his people, and it is important that the Hokage ignites and nurtures their will of fire..."

"What! Are you trying to tell me that to be Hokage is to live a fake life, to pretend be something you're not? Are you telling me that you and Danzo are literally one and the same, grains from the same bag of salt?" asked Tsunade hysterically. She couldn't help it, who was this man? This couldn't be her sensei, how could he be so cruel as to support that man and his methods, was this really her granduncle's doing, was his love for Konoha, for the people of the village just an act too?

"Tsunade, I know what you might be thinking, but you're a war veteran, you of all people should understand how much sacrifice is required for a village like ours to continue to prosper, do you know how many enemies Konoha has, do you know how much the R.O.O.T program has done and sacrificed to ensure the continued existence and peace for our people. The R.O.O.T 's way is not only for the protection of the civilians, but our official ninja as well, our own shinobi would never be able to handle the mental trauma that a member of the foundation is forced to endure, it also helps that their activities cannot be traced back to us, as the program is officially nonexistent. Tsunade, the ninja way is a life of sacrifice, we did not become shinobi so that we can feel good about ourselves, nor did we become shinobi for our own sakes, we became ninja for the sake of the people, the citizens of Konoha, our own happiness does not matter, it was forfeit the day we made our vows to the village, we live, die, kill, and do all kinds of cruel things for our people, that is shinobi, do not judge me, Danzo, or you granduncle or grandfather for that matter, we do what we need to do in order to keep the flame burning, for our beloved people, if you truly care about your people, about your father's legacy, than you will consider what I have said, now, let me be on my way, we will talk tomorrow." Said Hiruzen, now standing on his feet, getting ready to leave.

"Wait, what about the fourth member for team seven?" asked Tsunade hastily.

"Oh that,that will be Naruko chan of course, she is to arrive in two and half years with her mother, she's the perfect replacement for Naruto kun don't you think?" asked Hiruzen.

"I-I see..."

"Good, you will have two and a half years to prepare Haruno Sakura, tell Kakashi, Gai, and Kurenai to prepare the Kurama heiress, tell them to train her to the best of their abilities, without neglecting their own students of course, we don't want Naruko chan to be too much ahead of the rest, she will have incredible strength, if I know Kushina chan well enough." Said Sarutobi.

"She is not a registered ninja of Konoha, do you think she would still want to serve Konoha when she hears about her brother?" asked Tsunade nervously, her voiced laced with sadness and regret.

'Tsunade, you're so naive, there is still a lot that I have to teach you, but you will come around in time.' Thought the professor.

"Tsunade, her situation is not too different from Yakumo chan's, it should not be too difficult for you to convince her to follow in Naruto kun's footsteps and to complete his last wishes, you're the Hokage, it shouldn't be difficult for you to get a child to see things your way, good day, my dear student." said the old man, aiming to depart as quickly before she could decipher the underlying message in his words.

"Wait sensei!"

'Damn it, never thought it would be this hard to get her to see things my way, I was hoping she would be alone by the time she got it.'

"Yes, Tsunade chan?" asked Sarutobi calming, having quickly composed himself.

"I, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry, for blaming everything on you, and for doubting your love for the village, I think I understand things a little better, I'll think about what you said, about the R.O.O.T program, and Sasuke's fate, and everything else, good day." Said Tsunade sincerely, waiting for the old man to leave so that she can get something to drink from her secrete stash, before Shizune sniffs it out.

"It is okay, we all make mistakes, what is important is that we can move on and forgive each other, we'll talk again sometime, goodbye for now" said Sarutobi, exitting the room with haste, leaving the Senju princess with only her own thoughts for company.

 **Akatsuki Hideout in the west...**

"Zetsu, why have you called an emergency meeting? I do hope that you have a valid reason for calling upon us on such short notice?" asked/threatened a holographic figure. The figure seems to be dressed in long ninja pants, a long cloak with cloud designs on it. He has spiky, messy hair and his eyes have a darkish pupil with concentric circles around the irises.

"Oh, we have very disturbing news, the kyubi jinchuuriki has perished and there are no signs of the kyubi reforming itself." Answered Zetsu, a plant like being with messy green hair and gold coloured eyes, with the right eye being pupil less, he also appears to have two different halves, a black left side and a white coloured right side of his body, and speaks as if he is two different people, the right side seems to represent the more mature personality of the two. The man appears to have a venus fly trap growing from his torso, extending beyond his head. The man is wearing the standard Akatsuki outfit with a black, high collard cloak with black clouds on it.

"..."

"..."

"..."

To say everyone was shocked was an understatement, even the normally stone faced Uchiha Itachi failed to hide is shock at the devastating news, his eyes wide in disbelief and surprise. Hoshigaki Kisame however smirked in amusement, being one to always take satisfaction whenever his partner tried and failed to hide his emotions, a rare but entertaining sight indeed.

"How did this happen?" asked the leader in a calm manner, being the first to recover from his shock, though everyone could feel the edge in his tone regardless of his calm demeaner.

"He has been murdered by Uchiha Sasuke during a retrieval mission. Sasuke has joined that vile vermin Orochimaru." Said Zetsu.

"Uchiha Sasuke has ruined our plans hn, for that, I will end his ugly existence and turn it into my beautiful art, hn, what do you think, Sasori no dana?" exclaimed Deidara enthusiastically.

"Why don't you ask Itachi, I don't give a damn about Uchiha Sasuke." Replied the man now identified as Sasori.

"Shut up you art freak! We don't need your stupid pop art, I will deliver his unrighteous soul to Jashin sama, ne Kakuzu?" exclaimed Hidan in anticipation.

"No, I refuse to participate in your religious nonsense." Replied Kakuzu in irritation.

"Why you...!"

"ENOUGH!" cut in Pein, leaking large doses of KI not directed at anyone in particular but felt by everyone nonetheless.

"Zetsu, where is the boy's body?" asked Pein, the leader of the organisation.

"His body has not been recovered yet, Konoha hunter nin have been searching the valley of the end for days now." Explained Zetsu.

"I see, Itachi, Kisame, I want the two of you to eliminate those hunter nin and find his body before they do, understood?" instructed the leader.

"Hai, leader sama!" answered the duo.

"Good, you are all dismissed.."

"If I may ask, what do you intend to do with the boy's body, leader sama?" asked the stoic Uchiha

"I will resurrect him and see if the kyubi will return with him, if it doesn't, than I will interrogate him for the information of its whereabouts." Stated Pein, giving the Uchiha an unnerving stare.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Um...leader, I was not aware you knew the impure world resurrection technique, I doubt a traitor like Orochimaru would have been forthcoming with that kind of information?" asked Itachi, everyone else wondering the same thing.

"I do not know that jutsu, I have a better one, one that is an actual resurrection, unlike the inferior Nidaime's Jutsu. Do not be surprised though, it is only natural that a God should wield this kind of power, now get going, I will say no more on this matter!" ordered Pein.

"Hai!" said Itachi respectfully as he, along with all the other holograms disappeared from the cave, leaving only Pein, his right hand, Konan, and Zetsu.

Not even a quarter of a minute later, a man dressed in the standard Akatsuki outfit with short spiky hair and an orange mask with one eye hole appears from a swirling vacuum of what appears to be a high level space time jutsu.

"Pein,Zetsu, Konan chan..." said the man in a raspy, mocking voice, greeting his subordinates/partners.

"Madara/Tobi." Said Zetsu and Pein simultaneously, Konan choosing to remain silent, refusing to acknowledge the unappreciated and in her eyes, disrespectful manner to which she was addressed.

"What are we going to do about this, if Itachi and Kisame are unable to find the boy's body?" asked Pein.

"Do not trouble yourself, I have a plan B, for now, we will continue with business as scheduled." Answered the masked figure.

"What are we going to do about Uchiha Sasuke, perhaps he knows the location of the jinchuuriki's body? Or maybe Orochimaru took it to use as one of his experiments?" asked Zetsu.

"You will leave Sasuke alone, I have big plans for that boy, our goals have not changed, we will conduct our business as usual, if there's nothing else, I would like be on my way." Said Madara as he disappeared into a swirling portal, not even giving his subordinates a chance to object to his ubrupt departure.

"I'm out of here, see around Konan san, Leader sama." Said Zetsu before disappearing into the ground.

"Pein, I don't trust that Uchiha." Stated Konan. Pein just stared at his confidant inquisitively, if there was anyone who had his absolute trust and confidence, it was definitely her, and he didn't ever question her judgement, she was almost always accurate in her observations. If she didn't think someone was trustworthy, than that person was already a traitor in his eyes.

"Which Uchiha?" asked Pein neutrally.

"Both of them." Stated Konan with conviction.

"I understand your doubts about Madara, but Itachi?" asked Pein, raising one eyebrow at Konan.

"When we approached Itachi, his actions beforehand had indicated that he was severely unstable, violent, and homicidal, after all, who massacres his own entire clan just for the sake of testing his abilities? But..."

"But what?" asked Pein curiously.

"This Itachi is completely different from what we have been led to believe, he was too much emotional and self control, I don't believe for a second that this is the person that supposedly snapped and eliminated his loved ones, nor do I believe that he is as cruel or violent as he pretends to be, according to Kisame, and from what I have observed myself, Itachi is a pacifist who will try by all means to complete his goals without conflict, using violence as a last resort, once again a complete contradiction to what we have been led to believe. I also do not like the way he looks at you..." stated Konan with an uncharacteristic frown on her otherwise neutral facial expression.

"The way he looks at me?" asked Pein with a confused and uncertain undertone.

"I ahh...that's not what I meant!" shouted Konan, an uncharacteristic tinge of red forming on her cheeks.

"Oh...what did you mean then?" asked Pein, almost sighing in relief.

"I meant that he always seems to be sizing you up, like he wants to know all the secretes of your powers, as if he is preparing himself to fight you one day, he is very subtle about it, but have you noticed how much interest he seems to show whenever there is mention of your abilities. He also seems to always try to get involved whenever you personally handle missions, have you not noticed that?" asked Konan.

"No, I hadn't, I appreciate your bringing this to my knowledge, I'll have zetsu keep an eye on him. If he should betray us, than he will have to face my rath, Kami's rath!" said Pein with conviction.

"Good, but don't underestimate him." Warned Konan.

"I do not underestimate anyone, now let us go, we have work to do." Ordered Pein as his solute disappeared from the cave, not giving Konan a chance to reply.

 **Unspecified Location...**

Two individuals, sitting cross legged on two boulders opened their eyes simultaneously. One is a very tall and muscled man with a distinctive shark-like appearance complete with blue skin, small, round white eyes, gill like markings under his eyes and the trademark sharp, triangular teeth of The Seven Swordsman of the Mist. His dark blue hair is styled in the shape of a shark fin with a personalised forehead protector that also covers his ears, and is dressed in the standard Akatsuki outfit with a giant sword on his back. This man goes by the name Hoshigaki Kisame, otherwise known as The Monster of the Mist.

The other man is a significantly shorter 17 year old individual of average height with intense, dark eyes and black hair that hangs near his cheeks to frame his face with the rest kept in a pony tail which is obscured by the high collar of his cloak. The man is also dressed in the standard outfit of the organisation and is known by the name Uchiha Itachi, The Clan Slayer.

"Hehehe, I can't believe the kyubi jinchuuriki died, he didn't strike me as one who would die so easily, despite his lack of skill, he had quite a strong fire. Though, I guess even with the power of the Kyubi, he wasn't enough to take out a talented Uchiha, your brother is something else, ne Itachi? " asked Kisame with his trademark toothy grin in place, not even attemting to hide his amusement.

"Naruto kun had many admirable character traits, but intelligence was not one of them, with overwhelming power without the brains to use it effectively, Naruto kun never stood a chance, in the end, if Sasuke had not been able to win, than he would have not been worthy as a rival to test my abilities." Stated Itachi with ice cold indifference, now walking side by side with his companion.

"Tche...you're as cold as ever Itachi san, demo...I wonder, what are you going to do now?" asked Kisame.

"We are going to fire country to retrieve Naruto kun's body, that is what Leader ordered is it not?" asked Itachi rhetorically.

"Hehe...of course, but that isn't what I was talking about, you know Deidara and Hidan are out for your brother's blood, what are you going to do about it?" asked Kisame, his eyes dancing in amusement and anticipation.

"Nothing..." stated Itachi dispassionately.

"Nothing...?" asked Kisame, digging up for a more detailed explanation.

"Don't make me repeat myself Kisame, as I said before, If Sasuke is unable to defeat opponents that are weaker than me, than he is unworthy of our rivalry, I would then have to find someone else to test my abilities against." Stated Itachi indifferently.

"Heh, I guess that makes sense." Agreed Kisame, choosing to remain silent from then on.

Despite his outward stone cold and uncaring mannerisms, the same could not be said about his state of mind, this was far too troublesome a situation for Itachi to take lightly.

"My foolish little brother, what have you gotten yourself into? How am I to protect you like this? I wonder how Kaa chan, Kushina sama, and Sensei will handle these disturbing news? Will Naruko chan and her family want revenge? And should that happen, can I really blame them? But most importantly, who will I protect if it came to that?" Thought the Uchiha Clan Slayer.

 **FLASHBACK NO JUTSU**

"No no no! This can't be happening, this isn't happening, no no no!" screamed Mikoto hysterically with the bloody head of her dead husband, Uchiha Fugaku cradled on her lap. She is a unique beauty who has long black hair with black eyes. She is wearing a dark purple blouse with a red-plum skirt and a light yellow apron over it, though now dyed red with her husband's blood.

"Sochi kun, why...why are you doing this to your own family! Was I really that horrible of a mother to you, why!" wailed the ravern haired beauty in anguish and heartache, staring through her blood red sharingan eyes in disbelief.

"Why? That should be the least of your worries, when I am done with you, I am going to dispose of your little Sasuke chan, and then, the Uchiha Clan will be no more." Stated Itachi in a voice colder than the mountains of snow country.

"No please! Please anything but my sochi kun! I don't know why you're doing this, what has happened to you, but please, if you ever loved me as your kaa chan, if you ever loved sasuke chan as your brother, please spare him! Please...all I ever wanted was to raise the two of you to the best of my abilities, please, you may do as you want with me, but please take care of your brother, take care of each other, this is all a mother can wish for, Itachi kun, please..." asked Mikoto in resignation, swallowing her pride to beg for her beloved son's life, to protect her child...from her child.

"You disgust me!" said Itachi, it was said with such an even tone but the undertone was loaded with sincere loathe and disgust.

"W-what!" asked Mikoto wide eyed.

"I used to respect you, I used to look up to you when I starting my education as a shinobi, I wanted to be just like you, but now...look at you, look how far you have fallen." Stated Itachi emotionlessly.

"W-what do you mean sochi? I-I don't understand?" asked Mikoto with a confused and tearful expression.

"It is just as I said, you disgust me, your clansmen have been slaughtered, your husband, tou san would have died anyway, but he might have had a chance had you not gotten in his way, had you instead supported him as any wife should, instead all you were was a burden to him, what happened to you, you used to be one of the most promising kunoichi in this village, yet here you are snivelling on the ground and begging for your son to be spared instead of fighting for his safety, instead of fighting to protect him, you are taking the easy way out, practically begging me to kill you and leaving him alone in this world. You've lost your edge, you've let yourself go over the peaceful years, when you get to the afterlife, remember this, your family died because they had a weak wife, and a weak mother." Said Itachi, unsheathing his tanto from his back.

Meanwhile everything started to happen in slow motion for Mikoto, she couldn't believe it, her son was right, she was weak and pathetic, her husband took the blow that was meant for her, everyone died because of her. She was the matriah of the Uchiha Clan for kami's sake, she had been supposed to lead by example, everyone looked up to her for guidance, direction, and inspiration, she was the measuring yardstick for the clan and because she was weak, so was the rest of the clan, this was all her fault, her clan, her husband, and now her sasuke chan would die because of her, the guilt, shame, and regret was too much, it was consuming her.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!" screamed Mikoto, holding her right eye in pain, feeling a strong acid like burning sensation in her right eye, which ended just as she thought it would never end.

'So it is happening, finally.' Thought Itachi with a small, almost invisible smile on his face, his sharingan spinning wildly in anticipation.

"You're right, thank you sochi, for showing me the errors of my ways, but now I will have to kill my heart and eliminate you, to preserve the honour of my clan, to protect myself, but most importantly, to protect Sasuke chan." said Mikoto while rising onto her feet, adopting a serious and emotionless demeanor as opposed to her previously hysterical one, staring intently with her left, three tamoe sharingan spinning wildly while her right sharingan eye adopted the design of a three pronged shuriken.

"Finally, someone to test my abilities, Kaa chan, I shall defeat you here and take your eye for myself, so that I my become complete, you know right, those eyes, will become my knew eyes once I have defeated you, hehehe ahahahahaha!" laughed Itachi hysterically.

'Sochi, I always thought that I would cherish the day that you showed people a bit more of your emotions, how wrong I was, this is not quite what I imagined it would be like.' Though Mikoto, a lone tear falling from her right eye.

"Now Kaa chan, there is no better time than now, let us fight to the death, become the ultimate test for my abilities." Said Itachi charging his kaa chan with his tanto in hand.

Mikoto, with lightning fast reflexes unsheathed her husband's katana and charged at her son with equal vigour, aiming for his vital organs.

SQUELCH!

Was the sound as Itachi pierced his mother's heart, having ducked below her amateurish horizontal slash.

"Gwah...urgh!" screamed Mikoto in pain, gurgling blood up her throat.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"That...was very anticlimactic." Stated Itachi apethetically, trying to conceal his disappointment.

"Gwah!" grunted Itachi, spitting out globes of blood from his mouth. Wondering what happened, Itachi looked down only to see a long katana protruding from his chest.

"Shatter: Kyoka Suigetsu!" whispered Mikoto in Itachi's ear.

 **Cr...Cr...Crack!**

Was the sound as the Mikoto he had stabbed shattered into minuscule pieces, along with the rest of the world surrounding Itachi, showing that he had in actual fact stabbed on thin air, with his mother piercing him with a Katana from behind.

"Kyoka...cough... Suigetsu?" asked Itachi between coughing fits, turning his head sideways to look at his mother.

"Hai, this is the ultimate genjutsu of my mangyeko sharingan, with this power, I can manipulate all of your senses to make you see, hear, smell, taste and even feel whatever I want you to, you were destined to lose the second you made eye contact with me, this is my Absolute Hypnosis. Its over sochi kun, rest in peace." Said Mikoto before ripping her katana across her son's torso, only for him to scatter into a numerous number of crows.

'What is this! A genjutsu, but when...?" thought Mikoto.

"Behind you, Kaa chan." Said Itachi, aiming a decapitating slash on his mother with his tanto, only for his mother to once again shatter into a million pieces.

"That was my line." Said Mikoto from Itachi's right side, decapitating her son in the process, her son who had instead tried to block an identical attack from a mirage she had created to appear on his left, at least that is what would have happened had he not managed to dodge in the last second, earning a deep gash on his torso for his trouble but escaping certain death nonetheless.

"How!" asked Mikoto, enraged that Itachi had dodged her attack despite her absolute hypnosis, also taking note that he now also had a shuriken shaped sharingan, staring at it with her own identical eye, blood flowing down her right cheek from her eye, a sign of the over excursion of her abilities.

"Amateresu!" said Itachi, ignoring her question completely, choosing rather to send his black, unquenchable flames after her.

'Oh no! No no no, I didn't get the chance to activate kyoka suigetsu, I won't be able to dodge in time!' thought Mikoto frantically.

'No! I will not die here, I need to save Sasuke chan!' though Mikoto with a great amount of resolve, feeling the familiar sensation on her left eye, a sensation she had felt when she activated her right mangyeko sharingan. That was also the last thought she had before getting sucked into a portal, allowing the ameteresu to pass by her previous location as she appeared 20 metres behind her son through another portal, the ultimate fire technique hitting the building that was previously situated behind her.

Itachi, sensing the excessive chakra usage, quickly turns around to face his mother, wary of any surprise attacks she might launch with her new powers.

"You were able to dodge my attack when I attempted to decapitate you, in fact, you were even able to fool me with your crow clone even earlier than that, despite being caught in my absolute hypnosis, how is that possible?" asked Mikoto in between ragged breaths.

'Damnit I don't know how much more of this I can take, I'm out of shape and I'm not used to this new sharingan, I'll die from chakra exhaustion if this fight drags on for too long, I cannot even use Kyoka Suigetsu until I figure out how he was able to counter it, how was it even possible for him to do it, my jutsu is flawless, there shouldn't be any blind spots.' Thought Mikoto in frustration and a little panic.

"What is that jutsu, how did you get there, I know it wasn't that genjutsu you used, you somehow transported yourself didn't you?" asked Itachi forcefully, completely ignoring her own question.

'Did she use Madara sama's space time migration? No...that's not it, her transportation was a lot faster than Madara's jutsu, it was something else?' thought Itachi.

"Tell you what, I'll propose a trade, you tell me how you escaped my attacks even though you were under my hypnosis, and I'll tell you the name of my jutsu." Offered Mikoto hopefully.

'Urg who am I kidding, this wouldn't work even against a genin, it is obvious that I stand more to gain from this trade than he does, and even if he were to agree, he knows that there is no guarantee that I would comply after he has told me what I want to know.' Thought Mikoto dejectedly.

"An information trade, interesting, I see, very clever of you..." said Itachi.

"W-what, what do you mean clever?" asked Mikoto

"Because you have just recently discovered your power, this means that you yourself do not understand its full capabilities and limitations as you have not had the opportunity to train and practise with it, so you're using it on mostly pure instinct as it is. This is why you are unable to figure out why I was able to defeat it, and this is why you're hesitant to use it again, because you're afraid that your own jutsu might be used against you. So what do you do, you propose a trade, sometimes, the name of a jutsu can tell you a great deal about what it actually does, and from that, you can come to certain conclusions about how it is executed and its capabilities and limitations, You're willing to give away information about an even more unfamiliar jutsu to you, that expends almost twice as much chakra as your other jutsu, so that you can regain your advantage with the more familiar jutsu to you, Kyoka suigetsu, which is also less chakra extensive and easier to use, is that right, Kaa chan?" asked Itachi in an emotionless, but almost cocky manner.

"So you figured it out, big deal, what is your decision?" asked Mikoto heatedly, embarrassed that the little runt had seen through her plan, despite having expected it to happen anyway.

"Hmm...this won't change the outcome of the battle, so I might as well tell you, I replaced myself with a crow clone the second I saw your new sharingan as a precaution, I didn't want to be caught by surprise by your new abilities, this is why you were fooled by my crow clone when you decided to attack, though if I am not mistaken, you had already captured me in your jutsu the second I laid eyes on you. Nevertheless, I figured out the secrete to your jutsu after you told my clone a little about it, thinking that you had killed me..." said Itachi, pausing to give Mikoto a chance to digest the information.

"Damnit, I only told him because I thought it was over, I should have known better!" thought Mikoto, chasticing herself for her amateurish mistake.

"You said that you were able to manipulate all of a person's senses, but that was a lie, your jutsu does not give you the abilities to manipulate a person's senses, but the ability to manipulate a person's sense organs instead." Said Itachi, ironically taking the persona of a father scolding his daughter.

"What! Is that not the same thing?" asked Mikoto with incredulity.

"Not quite, I know this because despite your absolute hypnosis, I was still able to sense your chakra normally, I used the shinobi's ability to sense chakra to determine your true location, you see, there is no specific sense organ found in the human anatomy that allows a person to sense chakra, people generally use different methods to do it. This is why I was able to conclude that you were not directly manipulating what I should sense, but you were manipulating the reactions of my sense organs, and this is how I was able to avoid a critical injury." Stated Itachi aphethitically.

"But I was still able to injure you...oh...I see, even if you can sense my true location, you can't completely ignore your other senses, if you feel like someone is standing behind you, or if you hear the swishing sound of a sword about to decapitate you, you cannot help but to react because that is what you have been trained to do your whole life, that is why you initially went after the false image and only later reacted to my true presence, despite already knowing where the real me was through your chakra sensing abilities." Said Mikoto in contemplation.

"What was that jutsu you used to transport yourself." Demanded Itachi.

"Space Gliding Goddess!" said Mikoto with a smirk on her face before disappearing into a portal once again, quickly appearing in front of her son and piercing her son through his back, her son who had turned around anticipating an attack from his blind spot, having sense a portal opening behind him.

"This is it, sochi kun." Said Mikoto with tears in her eyes.

"Gwuh...You got me, I see, you can somehow open more than one portal at a time, you used this ability, to open a portal in my blind spot, naturally, I would turn to face the other way, expecting you to come out of said portal, but instead you had planned to open another in front of me, attacking me from the side I had already been facing, very good Kaa chan, but what are you going to do now that you're out of chakra?" asked Itachi casually, as if there wasn't a sword stabbed through his lower back, something that sent all kinds of warning bells to mikoto's instincts, and rightly so because the next thing she knew was her son once again turning into crows.

"Impossible, I was watching you the whole time, when did you use a clone!" asked Mikoto helplessly, the strain of using so many high level jutsu too much for her to even sustain her normal sharingan anymore, never mind her ultimate sharingan.

"It is not a clone, but a genjutsu." Said Itachi as the world shimmered around her, revealing her healthy, traitorous son standing right in front of her, though she was now too weak to do anything about it, her eyes having turned back to their usual black colour.

"This is what I have been waiting for, let me show you my ultimate genjutsu, Tsukiyomi!" said Itachi.

The last thing Mikoto remembered was standing in front of her son in her weakened state only to find herself in a strange world, tied to a cross with her son staring at her with what she concluded were evil eyes.

"This is Tsukiyomi, in this world I control the time and space, I am god, you will now have the pleasure of watching me butcher your husband over and over again for 72 hours starting...now...71 hours 59 minutes and 59 seconds, 72 hours 59 minutes and 58 seconds..."

"Gwaaaah! Please stop, please...please stop this, please just kill me, please just do it already, I don't want to see this.!" Screamed Mikoto in pain and sorrow.

'Damnit, why isn't it working, maybe I should try something different...' thought Itachi.

"Now, you will see what I am going to do to your son...34 hours 40 hours and 43 seconds..."

"Nooooooooo! Sasuke chan, I won't let you do this!" thought Mikoto, lifting her head up to stare at her son in fury and disgust, unconsciously activating both her mangyeko eyes.

"Let...me GO!" screamed Mikoto, sending tremors all around and shattering parts of the Tsukiyomi world.

'This is it.' Thought Itachi, trying valiantly to prevent her from breaking his jutsu.

"Gwah!" screamed Itachi as he was pushed a few metres away from his Kaa chan, his left eye bleeding profusely, finding himself back into the real world, looking through his right eye at his Kaa chan, who is now surrounded by a skeletal looking apparition.

'She's activating sasuno'o, that's good, time to end this.' Thought Itachi warily only for Mikoto to collapse on the floor, the apparition disappearing from around her.

 **2 minutes later...**

"Kaa chan...Kaa chan wake up!" whispered Itachi harshly, slapping Mikoto acrass the face lightly.

"Mmmm...hmmmm..."

"Kaa chan I killed Sasuke!" said Itachi.

"What!" screamed Mikoto, opening her eyes wide only to find her head resting comfortably on her homicidal son's lap.

"Uh...Ahhhh!" screamed Mikoto, trying and failing to jump away from the source of her nightmares.

"Shhhh...Kaa chan, try to relax, there's something important I need to tell you, but I need you to remain calm and listen carefully, we do not have a lot of time." Explain Itachi in a polite manner in order not to sound like a homicidal maniac, though his politeness only freaked her out even more, only her shinobi training allowing her to suppress her instinct to scream for help.

"Kaa chan, I never intended nor will I kill Sasuke, so you do not have to worry about anything. I only killed off the clan because they were planning a coupe against the Hokage and the village, I was assigned the mission to eliminate the threat to the village, which unfortunately was our clan." Explained Itachi, watching the varying emotions displayed on her face, shock, disbelief, understanding, and then contemplation.

"Kaa chan look at me!" said Itachi forcefully.

"I can't bring myself to kill you, or Sasuke, I –I couldn't allow you to die, that is why I volunteered to fulfil this mission myself, in order to protect you. But to do that, I had to make you strong, I had to pretend that I wanted to kill you and Sasuke, and to make you feel guilty, like it was your fault that everything happened, so that you could activate your mangyeko sharingan, I didn't mean what I said, I-I'm sorry, Kaa chan." Said Itachi with tears freely flowing down his cheeks.

"Sochi kun, its ok...I'm a little confused, and I have many questions, but I think I understand a bit...I...I think I can forgive you with time, you're my son after all, so please...do not cry, be a strong boy for Kaa chan!" said Mikoto, lifting her hand up to brush the tears away from her son's face.

"A-arigatou Kaa chan, but...you need to go..." said Itachi, standing on his feet after placing his mother gently on the ground.

"I'm going to call for help, Sensei's going to take you to a safe place." Said Itachi, pulling out a three pronged kunai from his weapons pouch and throwing it hard towards the ground...

"Finally, my part is done, now it is time to play your part Minato sensei!" said Itachi, throwing the kunai hard towards the floor, only for the immediate vicinity of the kunai to be illuminated by a yellow flash...


	2. Chapter 2

_**The ice dragon**_

 **Chapter 2**

The bright yellow light disappeared shortly to reveal, standing in front of the two Uchihas, a fairly tall, fare skinned, and handsome man with bright blue eyes and spiky blonde hair with jaw length bangs framing either side of his face. His outfit consists of a standard Konoha ninja uniform with two bands each on both of his sleeves, a green flak jacket and a konoha forehead protector. Over his outfit is a long, short sleeved white coat decorated by flame-like motifs on the lower edges, with the kanji for "Fourth Hokage" down the back and closed on the front by a thin orange rope.

"It has been a long time, Mikoto chan." Said the man nonchalantly, greeting Mikoto with a small wave.

Mikoto stared at the man that appeared out of nowhere in a bright flash of yellow with a shocked and horrified expression on her face. If she wasn't so exhausted she would have screamed her lungs hoarse in fear, how was this possible, she didn't know that ghosts really existed, weren't they supposed to be just myths, or was this some kind of cruel illusion that her son was using on her? Was he lying when he said that he wanted to protect her? That was the only logical explanation as far as she was concerned, there was no way that this was really the Yondaime Hokage.

"You shouldn't scare her like that Minato sensei, she has been through a lot recently. " explained Itachi in his usual emotionless monotone.

"I see, so it actually came to you having to do this, why the hell did Hiruzen let things degenerate this far?" asked Minato to himself, hands clenched in anger.

"We are all responsible for our own actions, at least for the most part, I don't blame Sandaime sama or the village for this tragedy, the clan chose their own actions and I chose mine, and so did the village hierarchy, we are all responsible for what happened here today." Said Itachi.

'Hiruzen, did my plans fail or did you completely ignore the instructions I left with Kushina with regards to dealings with the Uchiha clan and Uchiha Madara? Did it really have to come to this, that a thirteen year old kid would be required to carry this kind of burden?' thought Minato with a small frown on his face.

"Itachi, you're wrong, this is all my fault, if I had stayed than..."

"I know sensei..." said Itachi, cutting of the blonde former kage mid sentence.

"The relations between the clan and the village had improved a great deal during your short reign as the Hokage, and had you stayed, the village would have been aware of Madara's existence and thus, removing suspicion on the clan about the nine tails attack. The clan would have not been isolated and seen as a threat, and maybe they might have not felt cornered and forced to resort to a revolt against the village, I understand how and why you feel this way sensei, but..." trailed of the young Uchiha.

"Itachi..."

"Sensei, I don't blame you for what happened, I would have done the same in your shoes after what happened that day, Madara had the advantage over you because of his anonymity and timing, you had too many things to do, you had to protect Naruto kun and Naruko chan, while protecting Kushina sama as well as fighting the nine tails to protect the village. But that was not all, you still had to fight Madara and figure out his identity, devise a plan to deal with the fox, and make future plans at the same time. A difficult task that only you could have achieved, Madara's anonymity gave him an overwhelming advantage in that situation, you cannot plan for something if you do not even know of its existence, sensei, it is important to remember our reasons for doing what we've done and what we are going to be doing..." trailed off the young prodigy.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"To abandon your country and village is the same as abandoning your child, this was one of the first lessons you taught me, sensei. Which is better, to give your family a decade of happiness followed by a lifetime of misery and even death, or to sacrifice and live a decade of pain followed by a lifetime of happiness. I know you miss Naruto kun, and I know he and the village have suffered since your death, but we have to endure and persevere, you're the only one who can do it sensei, you can't come back yet and you can't take Naruto kun either, if you did, than Madara would probably speed things up and send the whole Akatsuki after you, he would never stop until he found Naruto, and by association, found you. It is best that Naruto kun stayed in the village for now, we need to keep your existence a secrete for as long as possible, the unpredictability of your existence will serve as a major trump card in this coming storm. This is the only step we have ahead of him." Explained Itachi

Minato sighed in bewilderment, trust his student to read his thoughts like an open book, really, was he that transparent or did his student simply know him that well? To top it off, even though he knew that Itachi was right, it didn't make him feel any better than he already felt, because despite what Itachi said about ten years of sacrifice and pain in exchange for a lifetime of happiness, he couldn't help but feel that things would not work out the way that they planned.

It was in fact not just a baseless feeling either, there were already signs that things would not go as perfectly as his prized student seemed to think they would. For one, Minato knew that Itachi's theory that the village would have stopped suspecting the Uchiha clan for the kyubi attack had they known about Madara was flawed, because he knew for a fact that Kushina had told the sandaime hokage about Madara before she left the village with Naruko. The fact that the village still blamed the clan for the attack meant one of two things, one, Hiruzen kept the information to himself and didn't tell the elders and the shinobi council, which was essentially consisting of the shinobi clan heads, the A.N.B.U Commander, and the Jonin Commander. Or two, he did tell the elders but not the shinobi council and they still suspected the clan regardless, maybe suspecting that the Uchiha clan already knew of Madara's existence and was in league with him. That would make more sense, Hiruzen himself never trusted the Uchiha clan, to have stayed in command of the village for as long as he did, decades, and not have fixed things in all that time meant only one thing to Minato, Hiruzen didn't try to fix things because he was happy with things as they were, even the Shodaime and Nidaime didn't trust the clan after madara attacked the shodaime all those years ago, even though the Uchiha had renounced madara's membership in the clan in favour of peace, in other words, betraying their leader in favour of the village and Senju Hashirama.

Minato didn't like to label himself as a prodigy or genius, but he was no fool, he knew exactly why Tobirama sama had given the Uchiha clan the honour of being the village's police force, it wasn't to show his respect or acknowledgement of the Uchiha's strength and service for the village as he made people believe, to even imply that to be the reason was an insult itself to not just the clan's strength, but their intelligence too if he expected them not to see his intentions, it was obvious that this was a ploy to keep an eye on the clan, and to suppress their potential. To understand Tobirama's plan, one needed to consult the nature of the role of a police officer and the science behind the strength of a shinobi, and even more specifically, the strength of an Uchiha.

For an example, to be a police officer of say, wave country, one is required to remain in wave country full time, as in live there and work on cases directly involved with the crimes taking place in wave country. In other words, you would be unlikely to leave wave country for any duration of time unless you were on vacation or on rare occasions, were required to collaborate with another country on an international or intercontinental crime. This meant that a police officer was for the most part, grounded to their place of occupation. Based on this information, it had not been hard for Minato to come to the conclusion that Tobirama had given the Uchiha clan this role to play in order to keep them inside of the village so that he can keep an eye on them, because as members of the police force, they couldn't leave the village to go on missions because their services were required inside the village.

To analyse the situation scientifically, it was important to take note of the shinobi biology. One example is the nature of chakra, which has a physical and spiritual component. A shinobi develops his physical chakra through physical training and his spiritual chakra through experience, which is attained through the many life and death battles that a shinobi has survived during missions or otherwise during war. But you couldn't properly develop this component of your chakra if you were stuck in the village handling civillian crime cases could you? There was nothing life threatening about that nor was there any chance of encountering any strong opponents because the A.N.B.U were there to handle the ninja related cases, and since the Uchiha's were required to join the police force when they became chuunin, it was incredibly difficult for them to attain the strength to match the strength of the legendary shinobi that Konoha has continuously produced over the years. Before Shisui, there hadn't been any kage level Uchiha shinobi produced in Konoha since Uchiha Madara, and even then, it had been only because of Shisui's involvement with Danzo and his R.O.O.T program that Shisui had been able to develop his skills with relative freedom to participate in difficult missions outside of the village. Minato may have allowed Danzo to train Shisui, but he had made it very clear that he would personaly eliminate Danzo if he placed one of his seals on Shisui's toungue. And then there was Itachi, whom Minato had secretly trained himself and Madara, ironically had helped too, teaching him all the secretes of the Mangyeko Sharingan.

Nonetheless, the situation contained further oppressive implications for a member of the Uchiha clan, if a person was unable to activate their sharingan before joining the police force at chuunin level, he or she would be faced with a situation where they could possibly never activate their bloodline limit. Why is that so?

It is because in order to activate his or her sharingan, a person needs to be faced with the real possibility of dying in a battle against a stronger and preferably, faster opponent. This requirement had made it almost impossible for a person to activate their doujutsu before they had to join the police force because of the nature of the missions that a genin participated in, for the most part d rank missions, which are nothing but ordinary chores that even a civilian could complete. An experienced genin could take on c rank missions, but that was still not dangerous or life threatening for a trained shinobi, as the only real danger a person could face was a bandit, which was for the most part, just a civilian with a mediocre weapon.

This caused a great deal of distress for the Uchihas, as the best chance to activate their prized bloodline limit became the chuunin examinations, but even then, one was not guaranteed to activate it during the tournament and even if they did, they would only have one or two tamoe by the end of the tournament, in which case if they passed the exam, which suspiciously, they always did get passed the first time around, they would be stuck with an immature sharingan, unable to activate all tamoe because of the lack of real battle experience. This served to put the Uchiha clan in an awkward situation, as over the years, less and less members of the co-founding clan were activating their bloodline limits and those that did, were unable to fully activate or master their eyes and as an ultimate result, weakening the clan a great deal over the years.

And then there was the mangyeko sharingan, the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage feared the Mangyeko Sharingan a great deal after Uchiha Madara's betrayal, Hashirama sama had been pushed to his limits for the first time in his life and almost lost the battle against the rebel Uchiha, what made them even more weary of the Uchiha's power, was the ability to control not just any bijuu, but the nine tailed demon fox itself. Tobirama knew that his brother, despite his strength, was not immortal, there would come a time that he would die, and when that time came, there would be no one else from the Senju clan that could control the fox, if the Uchiha clan were to raise another rebel Mangyeko user, than it could bring an end to the Senju clan if he or she got their hands on the fox and the Uchiha would seize power over the village, so he devised this elaborate plan that would prevent anyone from the clan from leaving the village, make it easy to keep an eye on the clan, weaken the clan and if possible, deny them access to their bloodline limit.

But it did not end there, there was still a chance that they could gain a mature sharingan despite his efforts, if so, then the plan would at the very least ensure that they did not gain access to the Mangyeko Sharingan, if they couldn't go out on dangerous missions, then they wouldn't lose any precious loved ones.

Some might wonder why the Nidaime Hokage would want to protect the loved ones of the very people whose strength he was trying to suppress. In order to understand this one needed to understand the scientific and biological traits of a human and an Uchiha human. For every emotion that a person feels, there is almost, if not always a subsequent physical response or reaction from the person's body. If you are sad or hurt, salty liquid flows out of your eyes in the form of tears. If you are angry or excited, your blood pressure rises, your heart beats faster, and your temperature rises amongst other things. As for an Uchiha, things can get a little bit more dangerous, if an Uchiha kills one of their loved ones, like any human being, they are bound to feel an overwhelming amount of sadness, sorrow, grief and guilt. These emotions at this level of intensity can produce a strong physical reaction to an Uchiha, particularly within the eyes of the select person, hence, the activation of the mangyeko sharingan.

But, did you really have to kill your loved ones yourself to feel these emotions, and subsequently, to activate an ultimate sharingan. What if you made a mistake during a mission and it resulted in the death of a loved one, would you not feel all these emotions, sadness, sorrow, grief, and most importantly, guilt?

It was certainly plausible, at least to the Nidaime Hokage and Minato had actually witnessed absolute proof of this when Shisui committed suicide in front of itachi, who as a result, activated his Mangyeko Sharingan because of the guilt he felt for not being able to protect his friend. Nonetheless the Nidaime Hokage's plan succeeded for the most part, and Sarutobi Hiruzen followed in his sensei's footsteps blindly, or maybe not so blindly, Minato had yet to fully comprehend the workings of the old man's mind but he was getting closer and closer to figuring him out as the years went by.

Minato was indeed a once in a life time genius, despite having never met the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage, he had been able to figure them out even before he became Hokage, that is why he knew that Itachi was wrong by assuming that knowledge of Madara's existence would have made things better, because the Uchiha clan had been oppressed even before the nine tails attack eight years ago, and he had also been foolish when he thought that having Kushina pass on the message to the sandaime Hokage would have bought the clan time until he returned, the only way to have prevented this was if he had stayed and remained as Hokage of Konohagakure no saito.

Anyway the point is that Minato was aware that many of his and his student's plans were already failing, he failed to absolve the Uchiha clan of their oppression, ultimately resulting in their plans for a revolt and their ultimate demise, he failed to protect his prized student from the burden of killing his clan, he failed to protect Shisui, and failed his son the most. His plans for Tsunade and Jiraya to take care of Naruto Kun until his return had failed dismally, what made matters worse was that he knew about his son's circumstances but couldn't do anything about it, he couldn't even begin to explain something like this to Kushi chan, he didn't know how she would react, it had been hard enough to convince her to leave Naruto kun with her own cousin, if she knew that Tsunade wasn't raising him and was in fact not telling the whole truth in her letters, than things could get bad really fast. He was afraid that Kushina would try to forcefully take Naruto away from the village, something that Konoha, or the Sandaime would never allow, the situation could escalate and get out of control and could ultimately result in her death. But he would never allow that though, he would have to reveal himself and help her fend off Konoha, and then what? Become a missing nin? A Kage becoming a missing ninja? And what's more is that Madara, Akatsuki, Iwa, Kumo, and Konoha would be after him and his family, there was no way even he would be able to raise a family under those conditions.

So far none of his plans had turned out the way that he had planned and if he had learned anything from this, it was that humans are unpredictable and sometimes unreliable, there was no guarantee that things were going to turn out the way the planned them to be, that was why he had his doubts about their actions. But he would have to suppress those doubts and move forward because Itachi now needed him more than ever, konoha, the shinobi world, Mikoto, Sasuke, Kushina, Naruko and his son's safety rested upon their shoulders and they were not going to fail no matter what.

"You're right Itachi, I think I needed to hear that, Tajuu Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!" said Minato with his hands in a cross seal, creating four doppelgangers of himself.

"You know what you have to do, spread out!" ordered the blonde haired former Kage, watching his clones disappear with a body flicker.

"What are you doing sensei?" asked Itachi inquisitively.

"I'm going to set up one of my own barriers, it serves as both a chakra concealing and a space locking barrier, just in case." Explained Minato

"Space-locking? You want to prevent him from returning and discovering you, but, you're the only one capable of setting up that kind of barrier, he'll recognise it as yours and he'll realise you're alive, surely you realise that sensei? Asked Itachi.

"This is not what you think it is Itachi, the barrier is not made to stop him from discovering me, it is made to stop him from escaping me, escaping us, if he comes back, the only way for him to escape will be to defeat the both of us." Lectured Minato.

'A space time barrier that is locked only from the inside, allowing easy entrance through space time jutsu but impossible to leave using the same method, not only that but the same barrier is able to function as a chakra concealing cloak, preventing people from sensing the enivitable usage of high level jutsu and as a result, no one to interfere and get caught in the battle, you never seize to amaze me, sensei, in a way, I can't help but wish that Madara sama actually does return, we could end this now and forever if he did.'

"I see, sensei, I need you to take mother with you, but I'm going to need a body to replace her, were you able to acquire an appropriate jutsu?" asked the 13 year old prodigy.

"No, I already had a jutsu for that, the same one I used to fake my own death." Explained Minato.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Sensei, it took you seven years to regain your strength after you used that jutsu..."

"The circumstances are different this time around Itachi, unlike me, your mother will not have half of her soul devoured by the shinigami..."

"What do you mean devoured by the shinigami! Itachi kun what is this man talking about, and why does he look like Minato kun!" screeched Mikoto frantically, staring at her son with fear, hope, and confusion, having finally recovered from her silent shock.

"Kaa chan, Minato sensei will take care of you and answer all of your questions, now...SLEEP..." said Itachi while looking at Mikoto straight the eyes, the tamoe in his eyes spinning rapidly around the pupil.

"A ...genjutsu...no please, I have to...see...if sasuke chan...is...safe...first..." trailed off Mikoto, trying to resist the inevitable genjutsu enforced sleep but in the end succumbing to the jutsu.

Minato, realising what Itachi had done quickly places a seal on Mikoto's wrist before going through a long series of hand seals.

"Forced Jutsu Activation." Said Minato at the end of the chain of handseals, causing the seal on Mikoto's wrist to glow bright blue for a few seconds.

"The seal I placed on her is now absorbing a small portion of her chakra to use as a base for the justu that I'm going to use." explained Minato for Itachi's benefit.

"Base for a jutsu?"asked Itachi with a quirked eyebrow.

"Hai, everybody has their own unique chakra frequency, or signal, but in spite of how different our chakra is, it is still human chakra regardless. This seal stores the chakra of the target, but the seal is linked to me, whatever jutsu I use while maintaining this link, the chakra signal will be converted by the seal to match that of the chakra that was absorbed and stored in the seal, and then the jutsu will be manifested with the chakra matching that of Mikoto's chakra signature, even though I am the one using the justu, and even though it is actually my chakra that is being expanded. Basically, it is a chakra converting seal. And don't worry about the jutsu deactivating, only I can deactivate it."explained Minato.

"I-I see."was all the Uchiha had to say, too shocked by the enginuity of such a jutsu to say anything more.

"Now Itachi, I'm going to need a quarter of a litre of your mother's blood to create the blood clone, and then I'm going to need you to kill the clone immediately, I've never tried this with a clone before, since the clone has an independent mind, we cannot be sure if it will follow mine or Mikoto chan's instructions." Explained Minato.

Itachi knew that his sensei was right, he had been wondering the same thing himself, If her blood and her chakra was used to make the clone, than why would it follow Minato sensei's instructions? Even if he was the only one who could deactivate the clone jutsu,that did not necessarily mean that the clone was obliged to follow his instructions. Itachi, realising that they were pressed for time, decided to speed things up, Sasuke was due to arrive soon and his time limit for the completion of the mission would come to an end soon, he would need to get out of here as soon as possible, to become a missing ninja and to join the Akatsuki as a spy for his sensei, for the sake of his village, and for the sake of his family and the ninja world.

"So, this is good bye, for now." Said Itachi, trying to conceal his emotions about being separated for such a long time from his kaa chan and pseudo Tou san, and about what he was about to do to his own little brother.

Everything went according to plan so far, he gained permission from the sandaime to spare his brother, he massacred the clan, manipulated his kaa chan into activating her ultimate sharingan, faked her death, organised for her to be taken care of by the person he trusts the most, he killed the blood clone and his kaa chan would be able to get the part of her soul trapped in the clone back when her fake body is cremated as promised by the sandaime upon his request that she not be buried but cremated, which would prompt Minato sensei to deactivate the jutsu once the clone died. Not even a hyuga would be able to tell that the body was a fake, when the blood clone dies, the chakra used to maintain the jutsu manifests itself as the chakra residue that is found in the chakra coils of all corpses, a hyuga would not find this to be suspicious because he or she would have expected to see this chakra residue within the chakra coils of the corpse. This was in effect, the ultimate fake corpse jutsu. Now all he had to do was to take care of his brother and be gone.

"Itachi, how is he, how's my son doing lately, have things gotten any better?" asked Minato, this was the first thing that he wanted to know, but he had saved it for last because of the situation, but now he was at his limit.

Itachi only looked down at that, this was the question that he was also dreading to answer. It did not matter how much his sensei told him that it was not his fault, he couldn't help it but to feel responsible for the blonde's suffering, he failed to even convince his own little brother to befriend his sensei's son. It was no secret that the blonde had absolutely no friends inside the village or anywhere for that matter.

He and his mother both tried to help the blonde though whenever they could. Actually, Mikoto had attempted on many occasions to adopt the blonde bundle of energy into the family as her third son. Not only would she be able to provide him with everything he needed, but he would also have the protection of a powerful clan behind him and receive the proper training he deserved. Even Fugaku had supported the idea and even encouraged Mikoto not to give up until she succeeded with her attempts, though Itachi had suspected that he might have had a different motive than his Kaa chan did.

Nevertheless none of her attempts to adopt little Naruto kun were even considered by the sandaime hokage, in fact, her efforts had only served to further isolate the clan from the rest of the village because the sandaime Hokage and his advisers only saw this as further proof that the Uchiha clan were responsible for the kyubi attack and were now trying to retrieve the kyubi by adopting its jinchuuriki into the clan.

"I'm sorry sensei, but not much has changed. Not many people are willing to be associated with him and those that do are kept at a distance from him by Sandaime sama. Ironically, it is because not many are willing to be associated with him that the ones that are end up visiting Ibiki. Sandaime sama believes that those that are willing to be associated with him have ulterior motives and so refuses them access to Naruto kun, further isolating him from the village. I tried to take him in as an apprentice six months ago but I was refused, Hokage sama insisted that Jiraiya sama would come back at any moment and take him in as a student. Up until now I've been protecting him from a distance, but there is only so much I can do while remaining anonymous and without alerting his A.N.B.U guards and sometimes being forced to leave the village for weaks on missions. I'm sorry sensei." Apologised the Uchiha genius.

"I see." Said Minato, looking at the ground in sadness.

"What about Sasuke, is he also to come with us?" asked Minato.

"No, Sasuke will remain here in konoha." Said Itachi with determination in his eyes, eyes that showed that nothing short of devine intervention would succeed in changing his mind.

"Itachi, are you sure about this? I don't see why I couldn't take Sasuke kun with us, we could easily make another fake corpse for him." Asked Minato, carrying Mikoto in his arms bridal style with concern in his eyes, not even trying to hide his concern for his apprentice and surrogate son.

"No sensei, Sasuke can never be allowed to find out about the truth of what happened here today, the Uchiha clan is a noble, proud, and loyal clan of the great village of Konoha, I need Sasuke to maintain this belief and become konoha's greatest protector, and to do that for him, I need to give him a dream, an important goal in his life, to become strong enough to defeat the one who betrayed and murdered his clan, to rebuild the Uchiha clan of Konoha and to become so strong that there will never be another massacre for as long as he is alive and thereafter, this is the only way I can do this for him, this bond of hatred between us will be his salvation in the end, and he'll become one of the greatest heroes of konoha for defeating one of the village's worst criminals." Said Itachi with convinction.

'Itachi, there is nothing I can do to change your mind about this is there? Sigh...you're not the one that is going to have to explain this to Mikoto, I'm the one that's going to have to deal with her righteous fury.' Thought Minato fearfully.

"I see, in that case, let me be on my way, good luck Itachi." Said Minato.

"Minato sensei!" said Itachi hastily, stopping the blonde legend from vanishing with his Kaa chan.

"Yes, Itachi, what is it?" asked Minato with concern, it was not like his student to hesitate, no matter what the circumstances, Itachi was the epitome of emotional control and professionalism. The fact that he was delaying his departure sent warning bells ringing into his ears, perhaps this whole ordeal was too much for him to deal with alone, he was only thirteen years old after all.

"Sensei, you do realise what is going to happen when Okaa chan and Kushina sama meet don't you, how do you plan do deal with it?" asked Itachi.

"Huh...?" was Minato's intellectual reply, it seems his student wasn't at the brink of an emotional breakdown after all.

Itachi sighed at his sensei's cluelessness. For all his intelligence and perceptiveness, his sensei was sometimes completely clueless when it came to predicting the emotional reactions of the people closest to him.

"Sensei, Kushina sama is going to find out that you lied about Naruto's status in the village hidden in the leaves, or rather, that you didn't say anything about his status, you do know that one of the first questions okaa chan is going to ask her is why she left Naruto kun alone in the village... don't you?" asked Itachi.

Minato felt like the whole world was collapsing on him when he heard that. Visions of a giant, demonic Kushina with red eyes, elongated fangs and clawed hands plucking out his limbs one by one screeming about betrayal and making him pay for hurting her sochi kun assaulted his mind. He was so frightened he almost dropped the beautiful Uchiha matriah, whom he was carrying bridal style in his arms in preparation for his departure.

"I'm going to die aren't I!"

"Probably." Said Itachi.

"Fuck!" cursed Minato.

 **END FLASHBACK NO JUTSU**

"Get ready Itachi san, we're almost there." Said Kisame, breaking his ice cold partner from is trip through memory lane, they had been travelling for almost 6 hours now in silence, something Kisame had initially struggled to get used to, but had come to adapt to his teenage partner's silent preferences over time.

"Hmm...Kisame, I'll take care of the hunter ninja, you and Samehada just focus on finding Naruto kun's body, your under water abilities are afterall the main reason that we were chosen for this specific mission, understood?" ordered the Uchiha with an aura of authority.

"Tche... why do you always get all the fun, can't I at least chop off just a few of their limbs before you fight them?" whined Kisame childishly, though never loosing his trademark predatory grin.

"Kisame...!" warned Itachi.

"Hai hai hai, It has been a long time since the last time me and Samehada went for a swim anyway." Grumbled Kisame.

"Good." Replied Itachi.

"This is good, this will give me a chance to send one of the crows to inform sensei about the fate of his son without Kisame's notice." Thought Itachi with a bit of relief.

 **Time skip a few months.**

Minato Sensei

Let me apologise first and foremost for breaking our rendezvous schedule, but as you may have already guessed, I have not done so without reason. Allow me to assure you that my cover is still intact and I eagerly await the time that I can complete my part of our mission, my will has not wavered, you are and will always be my mentor, my leader, and my true father and I shall not ever neglect or undermine your authority nor will I abandon our righteous path, even if it might pave our way to hell, it matters not as long as our loved ones are safe, sound, and happy, as long as we can prevent the end of our way of life, and as long as my great granduncle, Uchiha Madara is stopped, both my life and afterlife is worth the sacrifice.

I have regrettably yet to establish Yahiko's motives or true loyalties, or how it is that he inherited the powers of the rinnegan, I have tried to get close to him but it is too much of a risk, Konan watches over him like, for lack of a better term, a mother hen, and I have still not been able to discover the whereabouts of Nagato, I am however almost certain that he is no longer amongst the living, perhaps Yahiko killed him and took his eyes, perhaps Nagato died of natural causes and gave his eyes to yahiko, similar to how my cousin gave his eyes to Kakashi senpei, it is unlikely that he died in battle though, given the power he might and should have wielded together with the backup of the powerful allies that he had in Konan and Yahiko.

Speaking of power, I have recently discovered that the rinnegan may have the power to resurrect the dead in the form of a true resurrection, but I regret to inform you that is as far as I have progressed in my attempts to uncover the mysteries of the rinnegan and the true power that he might posses. My attempts to befriend him and accompany him on missions have failed miserably, Konan and Madara sama seem intent on isolating him from not just me but the others too, I however do suspect that the intent is more towards me, I might possibly have to take a few steps back lest our cover be shattered to a million pieces. Nevertheless let me not forget to mention that we will begin to actively hunt the Bijuu in almost exactly three years from this date on, I hope you will be prepared by then.

There is no doubt in my mind that by now, you have already ascertained that none of the above mentioned reasons could possibly warrant such drastic measures, to the extent that I would break our rendezvous schedule, sensei, perhaps I should have taken your advice that day, perhaps I have truly failed you, Kushina sama, Naruko chan, Okaa chan, myself, and even my foolish little brother, perhaps I have failed everyone.

Sensei, please let not your hate or ire be directed towards my otouto, let it not be directed torwards Okaa chan, sensei, if you want justice, than I will take the full force of your hate and ire, I will take the blame for what my brother has done, sensei, I will gladly turn myself in so that you and your family may have your justice, I was the one that told him to murder his best friend, I was the one that mislead him, I was the one that ignored your advice, and I was the one that filled him with hate.

I am the reason my foolish little brother killed his best friend, sensei, Naruto kun has passed away, your son is dead.

Itachi

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"Naruko! How dare you do this to me? Come back here! I'm going to kill you!" screamed Rin, a 27 year old beautiful, voluptuous, and feral woman with shoulder length brown hair and two bangs framing her face, big brown eyes and long canines jutting out from her lips with the trademark Inuzuka clan markings on each of her cheeks. She is wearing black, long, tight fitting, and calf length ninja pants with white medical tape wrapped around her ankles. On her upper body is short sleeved version of the standard jounin top that is especially tight, but comfortable around her DD cupped chest area, she also has white medical tape wrapped around her forearms and a weapons and tools pouch on her left leg. Her normally brown coloured hair is now a neon orange colour, suspected to be the source of her ire.

"Hehehe, you'll never catch me alive Rin nee chan, that's the punishment you get for winning our last taijutsu spar!" replied Naruko with glee over her shoulder, Natruko, a beautiful 12 year old girl with a heart shaped face and bright blue eyes accentuated by her dark red, waist length, and silky hair. She is wearing black, tight fitting spandex shorts with a red mini skirt on top, and black low-heeled boots with an olive-green tipping. Her upper body is coloured inversely to her lower body with a short sleeved, red t - shirt that leaves her lower tummy open with a black flak jacket on top. She also has a grey weapons pouch attached to her right thigh.

"Naruko! Come back here and take your punishment like a real kunoichi! How dare you do this to me, how am I supposed to get a mate with this hideous hair colour, how could you swap a woman's hair conditioner with orange dye of all things!"screeched Rin in anger, chasing the poor little red head around the huge Uzumaki mansion.

"Tche, I can't believe those two are going at it again." Said Mikoto in amusement from her spot beneath the cool shade of a large tree. She is wearing tight fitting, black A.N.B.U pants that accentuate her hips and curves with blue ninja sandals and blue bandages around her ankles and a tight fitting, short sleeved shirt that is tight against her DD breasts with a turtle neck collar and the Uchiha clan fan symbol at the middle of her back.

"Hehehe, like I would ever turn myself in, what kind of mastermind criminal does that." Said Naruko tauntingly, leading the sexy inuzuka on a unending chase around the Uzumaki clan compound gardens.

"Sigh...how many times do I have to tell her not to play pranks on her elders!" said Kushina, an older and more endowed version of little Naruko with violet eyes and plump lips with red lipstick. She is wearing a similar outfit to her daughter with the exception the belly exposing under shirt, choosing rather to cover up her lower abdomen with a longer, dark navy top, her colour scheme is also different, with a her under shit being dark navy in colour and her overtop skirt is also a few inches longer than her daughter's, also dark navy in colour. If it wasn't for the obvious age difference, they could easily have been mistaken for twins.

"Oh give it a rest Kushina chan, you know she'll never stop her pranks, besides, haven't you noticed that Rin secretly enjoys giving chase to Naruko chan?" said Mikoto playfully.

"Heh, I guess you're right, must be some Inuzuka fetish." Replied Kushina with a equally playful smile.

Mikoto broke down into a fit of giggles after that, trust her long time best friend to brighten up her days when she was bored, she couldn't help but remember the times before they became genin, when her friend used to force her to participate in her pranking adventures, thank goodness her father never found out about her involvement, it was so unbefitting of one from the great uchiha to make the fool out of themselves, at least according to her dad, not that she cared about that at the time, she was just enjoying herself with her best friend and that was all that mattered to her at the time.

"You know, little naruto kun and her would get along really well, he had already surpassed your pranking feats when I was at the village, I wonder if Naruko chan would have been able to surpass him, or maybe they could have made a undefeatable tag team." Said Mikoto casually only to cover up her mouth with her hand immediately afterwards, mentally chastising herself for her slip up. She felt so guilty now seeing the hurt and pained expression on her friend, damn her for speaking without thinking.

"Naruto kun, my sochi, I miss him so much." Whispered Kushina to herself with her hand tightly gripping her chest area. Her body started to rock hard in between her sobs, she'd tried to suppress the feeling the whole day, the feeling that something terrible was about to take place and it was going to change her life drastically, this feeling, it was even worse than the one she had on the day she gave birth to her children. Something bad was going to happen to her, she could feel it and whatever it was, it involved her son somehow, because whenever she thought about him, or whenever someone mentioned his name, that feeling would return tenfold.

"K-kushina chan I...I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me, I'm sorry kushi chan, I'm sorry!" wailed Mikoto, she and Kushina crushing each other in a strong hug, both for their own comfort and for each other's comfort. Despite she herself being an emotional wreck, Kushina knew that Mikoto was suffering just as much as her because of her own sons, one was all alone after witnessing the cruel elimination of his family and went through the betrayal of his brother, while the other was a spy in an evil organisation where anyone of the members had the potential to kill him, even worse was her elder son's refusal to change his mind about his planned death to her younger son, whichever way she looked at it, Mikoto would lose one of her sons before the end of the next decade, something no mother should have to know or go through.

"Shhhhh, its ok Mikoto chan, we'll get through this, I prom..." trailed of kushina, cut of mid sentence by the most heart wrenching sound she had ever heard. It sounded like a death scream or the cries of some tormented soul, a hurt, pained, guilt ridden, sorrowful, and regret filled cry, someone in great despair.

"Kushina chan, what was that!" asked Mikoto in a harsh but worried whisper.

"I...It...I don't know, it came from the direction that...Minato kun!" screeched Kushina loudly, her eyes wide in fear and despair. Not wasting time Kushina, with incredible reflexes summoned her long, black katana with a dark red handle from a summoning seal on her right wrist and was storming down the surrounding forest in an instant before Mikoto could even react.

"Kushina! Don't go in alone!" shouted Mikoto before giving chase, with Rin and Naruko coming in and catching up with Mikoto, all three mentally and physically already prepared for what could possibly be the battle of their lives ,Naruko already had her own katana unsealed, very similar to her mother's except with a dark blue handle and Rin was already in her man beast mode, running full speed in order to catch up with their friend/mother.

"Aunt Mikoto, what'ts going on? What was that sound, it sounded like tou san, is he in trouble?" asked Naruko, a few tears falling from her bright blue eyes.

"I'm not sure, there aren't many shinobi that could give Minato kun any problems, but if there is someone like that, than it is the person who could infiltrate the barrier your mom and dad set up without alerting anyone, if indeed someone entered the barrier without us knowing until now, than the situation we are in is a very dire one, the only people capable of such a feat...are people from that organisation." Explained Mikoto.

'Akatsuki? The organisation that want to kill onii chan, I hate them, their the reason I can't be with my onii chan,I can't. I won't lose to them!' thought Naruko, a determined expression forming on her face.

"Akatsuki? I see, then all we have to do is defeat them, this is exactly what we've been hiding out and preparing for all these years, if we cannot defeat them now, then all our efforts up until now would have been useless, in any case my nose is good enough to smell everything within this barrier, if there is an interloper, than he either doesn't have a scent, which is impossible, or he is masking it somehow, which also wouldn't work against me." Said Rin with a frown on her face.

"If both hypothetical scenarios are impossible, than what's going on?" asked Naruko

"From the intel we have received from Itachi kun, it is pretty much clear that the laws of science and physics do not apply to the akatsuki, some of them are even immortal, I wouldn't be surprised if there is someone who really doesn't have a scent among them." Pointed out Mikoto, the rest of the trip was conducted in silence after that, each one now trying to contemplate the possibilities of what lay ahead and prepared for the biggest fight of their lives.

'Its that feeling again, I've been feeling like this the whole day, Minato Kun, hold on, I won't let anything happen to you!' Thought Kushina as she sped through the beautiful jungle, not that she would notice or pay attention to something like that in her current mental and emotional state.

"There she is, we should slow down and approach with caution from here on, try to conceal your chakra as much as you can, I'll take care of the rest" Ordered Mikoto, the tamoe in her sharingan eyes spinning wildly as she set up a cloaking genjutsu to hide hers and her teammates' presence.

"Hai!" replied the other two kumoichi simultaneously.

They soon caught up to Kushina when they found her hiding behind a gigantic tree outside a large clearing, an area of the forest that they all recognised as Minato's favourite training ground.

"Kushina sama, where's the enemy?" whispered Rin.

Kushina had to admit that she almost peed on her pants at the sudden appearance of her friends and daughter, If it wasn't for her knowledge of her best friend's genjutsu abilities and her own shinobi experience, she might have blown their cover, she almost didn't notice them creaping up on her until the last second.

'Damn mikoto and her stupid genjutsu dattebane!' thought Kushina.

"Oka chan, what's wrong with otou san?" whispered Naruko with a sad and concerned expression, breaking Kushina from her momentary lapse.

It was strange behaviour indeed, her tou san was just standing there looking at the ground with his body rocking violently, she wasn't sure but she thought she could hear what sounded like choked sobs escaping from his throat.

"I don't know misume, I can't sense anyone around the vicinity and we haven't detected anything from the barrier, I'm sure its nothing, come, how about we go and cheer him up huh, how does that sound?" asked Kushina with a loving smile on her face, though the smile didn't quite reach her eyes, she could still feel it, that cold, oppressive feeling at the centre of her being and it was at an all time intensity at the moment, something was wrong about this whole scene, something was very wrong, she just couldn't put a finger on what it actually was though. Still, she would have to be strong for her misume, she couldn't and wouldn't allow her precious daughter to hurt because of her, even if she had to pretend everything was fine to do so.

000000000000000000000

 **4 Months Later: Uzushiogakure No Saito Ruins...**

It had taken Minato almost four months to fully recover from the horrible beat down he suffered at the hands of his beloved wife after he presented Itachi's message to her. It had gone down in phases, first it was complete shock and denial, followed by an emotional breakdown and endless tears sorrow and heartache, and finally, vengeance!

It is not the least bit uncommon for people to look for someone to blame during times of crisis and tragedy, this usually stems from their need for justice, but there cannot be justice if there is no one that can be held accountable for their pain, this is why people will almost always find a scapegoat to blame for their misfortunes, and it was not hard for Kushina to find her husband because he was right next to her and he was directly accountable for some of the painful things that happened to her and her family.

The former jinchuuriki had been on a murderous rampage and beaten her husband to a near inch of his life, to her this was righteous judgement that had been a long time coming, he was the one that made her leave her sochi kun with that woman, he was the one that lied to her about her sochi's wellbeing and had it not been for Mikoto's arrival, she would have never found out about that excuse of a woman's abandonment of her son. He was the one that made her stay here even after she found out the truth and even went as far as to incapacitate her for weeks just to buy time to convince her otherwise.

She'd eventually given in after spending three weeks thinking about it, she was never happy about that decision but this was Minato koi, her husband, he would never have done something like this unless there was no other way around it right, besides the more she had thought about it, the more it seemed like the right decision to stay, it wasn't like she wouldn't see her sochi again right? Of course she would see him, and she would give him all the love in the world when they were reunited, she could still make up for the time lost when they went back to the village, things would become a lot worse if they just forcefully took him away from Konoha.

For one, they couldn't afford to make an enemy out of Konoha at the moment, this was a chance she would have taken with ease 12 years ago because she knew that Jiraiya and Tsunade, two of the legendary sannin would side with them, Tsunade was her family and Jiraiya was like a father to Minato kun and her children's god father, plus there was Rin and Kakashi. Of course at the time she could not have expected Mikoto to side with her, she had a whole clan to look out for at the time, but still, what she had would have been enough, she wouldn't have to worry about the safety of her children too much because there would be people to help protect them while they were busy holding off a ninja village and Akatsuki, it would have been difficult but she was sure they could have managed somehow with all those top class shinibi to back them up.

But after what she heard from Mikoto, she had realised how naive she was, yes she was furious that Minato kun lied to her, but she understood why he did, because running back to konoha to get her child would have been foolish, they had no one apart from Rin to support them, Itachi was too loyal to konoha and would probably betray them if they went against Konoha just like he betrayed his clan, and Mikoto would obviously side with her child just like Kushina herself would side with Minato kun no matter what. Jiraiya, Kakashi, and tsunade had already betrayed them by abandoning their son and leaving him to the wolves. And on top of Konoha and akatsuki, there was still Iwa and Kumo, if other people found out that they were missing ninja of konoha with little kids to protect, they would be after them like a pack of rabid dogs, not even the Legendary Yellow Flash and Red Death could survive those odds, if they were alone, maybe, but they had children, their enemies would use that against them, that was just unfortunately the cruel nature of the shinobi world.

Sure they could have faked Naru kun's death when he was born, but than people would want to know what happened to the Kyubi. Bijuu just didn't disappear like that. The only way to do it was to present him to the sandaime hokage as the jinchuuriki, at least this way he would have had the protection of a whole hidden village, until Minato kun could recover his strength, until they were ready to take care of Madara and his goons. Three weeks of incapacitation, explanations, and justifications was all it took for her to understand this and not go running back to konoha to get her sochi back after finding out about her husband's lies, she'd eventually forgiven him and in fact loved him even more for taking on such a heavy burden for the safety of his home and family, she knew that he had everyone's best interests at heart, that big heart of his was the reason she fell in love with him in the first place.

But! After finding out that her sochi was dead! What was the point then! What was the point of all this nonsense, what was the point of leaving him in that hell hole to suffer for so many years if he was going to die anyway! What was the damn point! If only she hadn't ignored her motherly instincts, if only she had just stormed back there and taken her sochi kun back to where he belonged, with his kaa chan! Sure he would have been in even more danger, but at least he would have been happy with his family, at least he would have known that he had a loving family, a mother, father, and sister who loved him more than anything in the world.

All this had been too much for her to take in and it had made her turn her back on her husband. All that planning and scheming, all that training and preparation just seemed incredibly useless now, she had lost herself to her rage and attacked her beloved without even thinking, a crime of passion maybe. It had taken both Mikoto and Rin's intervention to stop her from decapitating him with her katana, she had screamed in frustration, demanding they move out of the way so that she can make him pay, a battle had ensured between the three of them. Her husband was unconscious at the time and her daughter was an emotional wreck, so much so that she didn't even notice what was going on around her, too overwhelmed by the news of her onii chan's demise.

The battle had been a stalemate, no one was willing to give up, Kushina' s temporary insanity pushing her on to finish off her target, Mikoto and Rin's love for her pushing them on to prevent her from making the biggest mistake of her life. Eventually the duo had realised that the only way to stop her, short of killing her would be to use genjutsu, otherwise they would both eventually lose, she had too much overwhelming force and her skill with the sword was at an incomprehensible level, she would also outlast them with her Uzumaki chakra reserves and stamina and there was no one better than Mikoto to subdue her with genjutsu. She had been forced to use Kyoka Suigetsu to subdue the wild Uzumaki, Kushina, in her enraged state did not even consider the possibility of a Genjutsu and went on to subdue the illusions of her friends and murder the illusion of her husband. Losing consciousness almost immediately after that from the shock and despair that followed when she realised what she had done, her emotions overwhelming her once again.

Ironically, this incident played a big role in her decision to once again forgive her husband, she had woken up filled with heartache, regret, and guilt for what she had done to her husband, and the fact that he never even fought back made her believe that it was her fault for making him feel guilty for what happened, it made her think that he had actually wanted her to kill him because of the horrible and painful things that she said at the time that he himself was very emotionally vulnerable. She felt so selfish for being so inconsiderate, he must have been hurting just as much as her after finding out that his only son had passed away. Now not only did she lose her sochi, but she lost her koi too, this was just too much, she would have commited seppukku if it she didn't have her misume to live for.

When she found out that his death was just an illusion, she had watched over him like a mother hen and refused to leave his side, only leaving him alone for hygene purposes and nature's calling. It had taken a month and a half for him to regain consciousness and even then, another two and a half months to be physically fit again. Thank goodness for Rin's medical skills, by all rights and purposes, his injuries should have been too much for even an Uzumaki to survive.

Kushina had apologised profusely to him but Minato just brushed it off as nothing and forgave her instantly, saying that he couldn't possibly imagine his life without her in his life. Needless to say that they have never been closer after that, The Namikaze's would never be the same after the death of their son/brother, but they would live, Naruko took it harder than everyone but Minato and Kushina vowed to try their best to fill the gap in her heart that had opened up after her onii chan's death.

They decided not to pursue revenge against Sasuke for Mikoto and Itachi's sake. Itachi and Mikoto were literally family to them even without any dna connections, revenge would not only cause more pain to Mikoto and Itachi, but it would cause more pain for them too, in any case they doubted that Naruto would want them to live that kind of life, filled with hate and revenge. But they were no longer going to be fence sitters, no longer would they allow their lives to pass them by isolated in some unknown barrier inside a long forgotten land, no, it was time they faced their demons head on.

If they wanted to hold on to what remains of their family, than they would have to catch a wake up and realise that the world was not going to wait for them to get ready for whatever it is that they had planned, that is why Minato deciding to take an active part in his daughter's education as a shinobi. Up until now, he'd left her training up to her mother. It was something they had always wanted to do since the first day they laid eyes on their beautiful twins, they couldn't help at the time but notice that their children looked like mini versions of themselves. So it had been decided that Kushina would train their daughter and mould little Naruko in her image whilst Minato would be the one to one day educate Naruto in the shinobi arts and mould him in his image, teaching him his prized Flying Thunder God Technique to make him the second coming of the Yellow Flash Of Konoha.

Such dreams were unattainable now, their son was dead, murdered by his best friend, murdered by the son of their family friend, and murdered by the brother of Minato's student. It was with this realisation that Minato decided to take part in his daughter's training, she was already one level behind her mother in the art of seals and barriers and a kenjutsu master, learning and mastering everything her mother taught her in the arts. Naruko also inherited her mother's special chakra, able to manifest indestructible chains from her chakra and use them as a weapon in battle. The Uzu heiress had a particularly strong water affinity that she used in ways Minato would have to admit to have never seen or heard of before, using her water affinity in combination with her fuinjutsu abilities to create her own unique but very powerful fighting style. In his unbiased opinion, his daughter was already an S class shinobi in terms of ability, her 8 years of training under the tutorship of her mother had done wonders for her, the only thing she lacked now was actual experience. Still he'd like to think she was prepared for anything. Intense spars with one of the greatest Genjutsu masters in the world in Mikoto, one of the greatest Taijutsu specialists in Rin, Kenjutsu in her mother, and speedsters and space time masters in both himself and Mikoto, there was truly nothing she wasn't prepared for.

Still, there was going to be a change of plans, since he was now going to be going back to Konoha with the rest of his family and revealing himself, it was imperative that he made his daughter as strong as possible, and that meant teaching her the rasengan and the hirashin no jutsu among other things. She would also be taking S rank solo missions from now on, and he would have to talk to Fukusaku sama about letting her sign the toad contract, although he was a bit hesitant about doing so. The old sage had already done so much for him, he really felt bad about asking for anything more, but he would do it for his daughter. His beloved misume would become the most powerful shinobi in the elemental nations, a perfect blend between her kaa chan and her tou chan, maybe she would be able to learn the level three of the Flying Thunder God Technique, maybe it wasn't their son that was destined, maybe her their daughter was that child of prophesy.


	3. Chapter 3

_**The ice dragon**_

 **Chapter 3**

The years outside of konoha were great on him, he was no longer malnourished but he was now a very tall 16 year old child, but thanks to kyubi he looked 18, Naruto is a tall man with waist - length spiky white hair. He is also quite attractive, he has tanned skin and blue eyes, he usually wore a black trench coat over a black muscle shirt and black pants, he also wears black shinobi sandals. Thanks to living in the frosty montains of kosanji den (High sacred montain den) his body has been tempered by the elements, he also managed to create the **mizu no kami no ken (the fist of the water god)** taijutsu, which allowed him to combine his water affinity with his taijutsu for more devastating effects. He also seemed to have inherited Kushina's talent for kenjutsu When he created his own kenjutsu style the hyomon ken.

But just because Naruto trained his body to the absolute limit, did not mean he neglected the other aspects of his training, while he trained his body, he had 1000 kage bunshin working on chakra control and on elemental manipulation, he had two elements, futon and Suiton due to his kekkei genkai the hyoton and he mastered both, even going as far as using said elements to enhance his taijutsu. he also had a batch of clones working on fuinjutsu, thanks to the kyubi, he had access to both the memories of uzumaki kushina and uzumaki mito, both renowned fuinjutsu mistresses.

Not only did he train In taijutsu, ninjutsu, kenjutsu, fuinjutsu, but thanks to the Dai Kitsune sennin (great fox sage) he managed to learn the Kitsune style senjutsu, what made It so different was that, unlike the gama or the hebi clans, the Kitsune clan found a way to gather sage chakra by the use of fighting meditation, allowing him to gather nature energy while being on the move.

But his greatest achievement was becoming the perfect jinchuriki of the kyubi no yoko, or kurama as she allowed her friends to call her, yes you heard right, the kitsune no yoko, strongest of the bijuu, and destruction Incarnate was a women. Having being reunited with his dark side, Naruto was halfway there to learn how to control the kyubi. All he needed was to gain the full power of the kyubi, half of which was sealed alongside half of Minato's soul in the stomach of the Shinigami, he went to the Uzumaki Shrine in konoha and tried to find the mask, when he did not find It, he figured that Kushina took it with her. Luckily for him Mito knew how to craft the mask, so a few weeks later he made his own mask, and using it he saved the other half of kurama's chakra from within the Shinigami leaving half of Namikaze's soul inside the shinigami. Then he needed the key to his seal which he was sure was with either Namikaze or with Jiraya, so he decided to make his own key, it took him a whole year, with one kage bunshin to finish it, of course he would have taken less time with more kage bunshin on the case but since he wanted to destroy his father greatest work personnally, and since he had his training, he settled for one kage bunshin working on the seal. Finally he and Kurama had to fight because no matter how friendsly they became with one another, it did not matter that they fucked every once in a while, to a bijuu their chakra was more important than everything else. And what a fight It was, both of them threw everything at eachother including ninjutsu taijutsu, hell kurama even Shot him with a bijuu dama, he never was more glad about mastering Hyoton than that day when he, just like Hashirama Senju managed to take on a bijuu Dama with just An ice wall. They also discovered that because of kushina his chakra had a calming Nature for the bijuu, so by trial and error he managed to recreate the Shodaime Hokage's **Hokage-Shiki Jijun Jutsu** **—** **Kakuan Nitten Suishu (Hokage-Style Sixty-Year-Old Technique** **—** **Kakuan Entering Society with Bliss-Bringing Hands)** which he liked to call it **Uzumaki-Shiki Jijun Jutsu** **—** **Kakuan Nitten Suishu (uzumaki-Style Sixty-Year-Old Technique** **—** **Kakuan Entering Society with Bliss-Bringing Hands),** yeah he knows, not very original bjt it got the job done anyway.

When he returned to the human world, he realised that only one year had passed, he grinned before he made his way to Mizu no kuni, on the way he decided to pay Zabuza and Haku a visit, so he went to their graves and took kubikiribocho with him, that and his Hyoton allowed him to join the rebellion, which now six months later, he was one of the big members in it, Thanks to his strength but more importantly, Thanks to his supply line that he made between the rebellion and Suna, Haru no kuni and Nami no kuni that allowed the rebellion to resupply themselves whenever they needed with no one being the wiser. We find our white haired teenage now sitting in the war room, as Mei Terumi, a tall, slender woman in her thirties. She has green eyes, and ankle-length, auburn hair styled into a herringbone pattern at the back, a top-knot tied with a dark blue band, and with four bangs at the front. Two bangs are short, with one covering her right eye, and two are long, crossing each other on her bust, just below her chin.

She wears a long-sleeved, dark blue dress that falls just below the knees. It seems to be closed at the front with a zipper, and is kept open on the front-right side from the waist down. The dress only covers up to the upper part of her arms and the underside of her breasts. Underneath, she wears a mesh armour that covers slightly more of her upper body than her dress. She also wears a skirt in the same colour as her dress and, underneath those, mesh leggings reaching down over her knees. Around her waist, she wears a belt with a pouch attached to the back on the left along with high-heeled sandals and shin-guards reaching up over her knees, dark blue polish on her fingers and toes, and is usually shown with purple lipstick. Mei started the meeting by saying

"the war is at its final stage, Ao, Toshiro kun, I have two important missions for both of you." If you are wondering, Naruto decided to hide his real name by calling himself Hitsugaya Toshiro. Both he and Ao nodded

"Ao, you will go undercover, for a few months into Black Harbor and find out the location of the weapons factory. As for you Toshiro kun, we need money, you will handle that. See you both in four months." both he an Ao, a middle aged man with blue hair which is styled in a moused-up manner. His left eye was blue and his right eye was covered with an eye-patch, under which he concealed the Byakugan that he obtained from a Hyūga clan member he defeated. He wore a talisman in each ear with the kanji for a humble form of "to hear" (承, shō, uketamawa(ru)) written on them twice on each side. These talismans reacted when his Byakugan is under threat and will protect it from anyone, even himself. He also wore the standard striped, grey suit, with a green haori that had white trimmings that stop halfway down, over them, nodded and left the war room. Naruto was grining, he finaly could start his extra curriculary assignements. On one of the many times he sneaked into the Mizukage's office, he found Yagura's journal, where he said that he was being manipulated by a sharingan user, having an Idea who it was, he sneaked into konoha, which was even easier than before and started looking for some answers. He sneaked into the deceased shinobi category and looked for the Uchiha that went MIA or KIA because of Kiri or those who lost someone because of Kiri, he found five said Uchihas, four of them were KIA and their bodies were cremated but one of them, named Uchiha Obito, who was KIA because of Iwa, and would you look at that he only has his right eye now, lost one of his teamates because of Kiri, her name was Inuzuka Rin and she was listed as MIA. After knowing who his enemy Is, he decided to get himself some insurance against konoha, by using Mito's memories he realised that every hokage kept a diary of sorts on this diary are every black ops secret that konoha has, he also knew where the book was kept and how to break the seal protecting them. He took the book and used his **Hyoton makyo hyoushou** to leave.

 **Scene change**

Kakashi is a fit and relatively tall shinobi, with spiky silver hair and dark grey eyes. Since his first jōnin mission, he obtained a small vertical scar running over his left eye (which was soon replaced by a Sharingan). While unknown why, since early childhood, Kakashi has worn a mask over the nose and lower-half of his face. He is revealed, however, to have a narrow jaw-line with a beauty mark under the left corner of his mouth. He is also considered very handsome, as seen from Teuchi and Ayame's reaction to his face. Chiyo once mistook Kakashi for his father, whom he greatly resembles, despite most of his face being obscured. Kakashi's personality is further emphasised by his generally lazy expression, aloof mannerisms, relaxed voice, and minimalist attitude. In serious situations, however, he is shown to have a very stern and intense look. Since this was an Anbu mission he was wearing the standard uniform, which consisted of a simple blue suit with a grey flack jacket, strapped up sandals, and arm guards. Along with this, he wore plated gloves that went all the way up to his arms with a bandage wrapped around the right one. He wielded a sword and his mask was fashioned to resemble a dog's face with red and black markings around the eyes, sides and mouth. In addition, Kakashi has the Anbu tattoo on his left shoulder. He was tree hoping for tree to tree in a standard border patrol mission, by his side were three members of team Ro.

one of them was Ookami, he wore the standard Anbu uniform, which consisted of a simple blue suit with a grey flack jacket, strapped up sandals, and arm guards. Along with this, he wore plated gloves that went all the way up to his arms with a bandage wrapped around the right one. He wielded a sword and his mask was fashioned to resemble a wolf's face. In addition, Ookami has the Anbu tattoo on his left shoulder.

Another one was Neko, or as he knew her, Yugao Uzuki, young woman with straight, purple hair reaching down to her waist, warm brown eyes, and a shade of red lipstick. As an Anbu member, Yūgao wears a porcelain mask resembling a cat with three red stripes — one vertical stripe on the forehead and two horizontal stripes, one on each cheek. She also wears the standard Anbu uniform, consisting of black and grey armour, metal arm guards and a katana strapped to her back. She has the signature Anbu tattoo on her right shoulder.

The last member of the team was Tenzo or Yamato, he wore the standard attire of the Anbu, with a sword strapped to his back, a mask that resembles a cat's face covered in green, and red markings, and the Anbu tattoo on his left shoulder. He also still retains two hip pouches strapped to his lower back instead of just one. In addition to that, he has a happuri-style forehead protector that frames his face, similar to that of Tobirama Senju.

The team was doing one last check before they returned home.

 **Scene change**

Naruto was standing in the middle of the forest, his eyes closed and he was facing his front, he felt the team come closer, and when they were just two hundred meters away from him he went through some handsigns and slammed his hands on the ground before he said " **hyoton: Shiva: tenku no Hashira (Ice release: Shiva: heaven's pillar)"** and a circle appeared around him before it expanded in all directions, when it reached five hundred feet away from Naruto, the circle glawed and a Tower of ice appeared from It, the towards was incredibly tall, and the walls were at least ten meters thick. Then he said " **hyoton: shiva: Kirigakure no Jutsu (Ice release: Shiva: hidden mist jutsu)"** before exhaling a thick mist from his mouth.

Kakashi was standing in front of the ice wall, he waited for both Ookami and Tenzo to finish their reports about the situation. Soon Ookami appeared before Kakashi and said

"gomen Inu sempai, we are completely surrounded." Kakashi nodded and looked at the ground from which appeared Tenzo

"sempai, the ice is in the ground as well, and there is no week point un the ice from which I can dig us out." Now that was bad, the enemy had been very through with his preparations, préparations that he did not need, he saw the wall, the thing had as much Chakra as him flowing into it. Whoever made this jutsu was without a doubt kage level, that also meant that these preparations were so that no one could escape. He looked at his team and said

"guys, the enemy is taking preparations so that he could kill us all in this mist so stay vigilant." and he took the **Hakkō Chakura Tō (White Light Chakra Sabre),** the tantō that earned his father his nickname **konoha no shiroi kiba (Konoha's White Fang)** and took a stance which was mirrors by the others. Suddenly a voice said

"welcome to the fight cage guys, you will die here so try to make your final moments enjoyable for me.", Ookami growled and said

"show yourself coward." he said and the voice merely answered "as you wish" and the étrangers seemed to shimmer into existence in front of them allowing them a good look at him, the stranger was tall, he was wearing a black, closely fitting shirt, with a thick, gray fur collar, as well as light gray oversleeves reaching to his upper arm with hems secured by two sets of double stitching; the back of his shirt bears a light motif consisting of a circle with a segmented, upwards arc below it. Hanging from his waist and covering his sides are two dark yellow, tasset-like cloths, he wears brown gloves over his hands and forearms and has his dark brown, baggy pants tucked inside brown boots. Over his shirt, the Ice user dons a gray, segmented metal chestplate, bearing the writing "Absolute Zerø" on the left pectoral; secured to it by two round, golden clasps is a long, brownish white cape hanging over the man's shoulders. The armor is completed by two blue, rounded pauldrons, possessing metal-colored edges and squared protrusions on the upper and lower edges. His hair was kept short and styled into a number of spiky strands pointing backwards with some prominent spikes topping his forehead. His eyes were blue, all in he was incredibly handsome. Kakashi was about to ask him a question but Tenzo attacked the stranger with a **Mokuton Daijurin no Jutsu (Wood Release: Great Forest Technique.)** and shot spikes towards the stranger, they passed through him and the stranger merely disappeared and he reappeared to their right and he said

"Now now, we still have a lot more time to play so don't be hasty." the figure before an ice spear appeared in his hand and he hurled it towards Ookami, the anbu dodged easily and said

"haha, that was too easy you moron how was that supposed toARGH!" roared the anbu before an ice spear pierce his gut, he looked at the first spear and found that the spear disappeared, an illusion. The anbu felt his life leave and he died before he evn touched the ground. The others looked at the stranger and said

"how are you doing this, genjutsu is not supposed to work on us." the ice user chuckled and then he answered

" **futon maboroshi no sekai (Wind Release illusion world.)** , in a certain area, I can make the air recreate anything, from the air, to the sounds, hell even image can be created, the best is that your sensés are not really tricked, they hear those sounds, you see those images, they just are not really." he said and team kakashi was feeling dreading but before they could formulate a plan, the ice user started again

"with this jutsu, i can make you see anything I want" and now he appeared right inside their triangular formation "hell, I was right here and you guys did not even see me, **futon Tatsumaki no Hashira (Tornado Pillar)"** andClapping his hands together, the armoured shinobi summons a tornado around him. The tornado sent all the anbu flying in different directions. He smiled before he said "phase one, divide and conquer, phase two" he kneeled and touched the ground before saying " **hyouton shiva hyougaki (Ice release shiva ice Age)"** and a thick wave of ice covered the ground, he did not want to use too much Chakra, but the jutsu covered all the area separated by the dome. He then continued "take away all advantages, now let's have some fun, **hyoton hyo bunshin no Jutsu (Ice release ice clone jutsu)** " before two clones appeared right beside him, they three nodded at each other before they shunshined to their opponent.

 **With Tenzo/ yamato**

Tenzo looked up as a small streak in the sky slowly descended toward him. He initially mistook it for a bird until he sensed the large, enviable Chakra signature it let out. It grew proportionally bigger with each second and the man could make out a humanoid shadow that whatever it was cast on the ground. He reached into his Kunai sack, pulling out one and flinging it up toward the oncoming falling figure.

A clang of metal signalled the deflection of his weapon and mere moments later, Naruto crashed into the ground.

' _Yep, definitely not a bird._ ' The man remarked jokingly inside his head as he stared at the crouched figure of the white haired teen.

Naruto stood up and gazed at the ANBU captain, "You're the one they call Kinoe? The Mokuton child?" Naruto queried the brown-haired man.

Tenzo's posture instantly changed, the air surrounding him turning cold and deadly serious, "How do you know that?" the man questioned wearily, his voice laced with acres of suspicion. That was a secret only three people were privy to in Konoha, and this guy wasn't one of them. It was the type of secret that Yamato knew could jeopardise village security, Konoha's image and their relationship with the Hi no Kuni Daimyo.

"I know a lot of things I shouldn't. Bad things those are. Most of Konoha's dirtiest secrets, all in here." Naruto finished as he tapped his head repeatedly with his finger as if to emphasise his point, in a move which just perpetuated Yamato's suspicions and paranoia.

"And who told you these secrets?" He had very few guesses and none of them could risk telling an outsider something like that. The only ones who knew the information were Danzo, the sandaime hokage, Kakashi and the godaime.

"I extracted them myself." Naruto replied simply, "so just expected to die today, you are too dangerous to let live" Naruto said as he took a stance

Tenzo just stared blankly at the white haired teen, staying in character as he suppressed the natural urge to chuckle from the blonde's statement, "You sound sure of yourself."

"Because I have to be if I am to survive in this world. I have trained myself into the ground so that I can handle someone of your capabilities." Naruto responded concisely as both himself and Tenzo continued eyeing each other down with examining stares, feeling each other's Chakra around.

"Then prove it to me, hyoton user." Tenzo said to the blonde as his hand morphed into a long wooden branch which flew directly at Naruto.

"With pleasure." Naruto said as he pointed his fist at the man's attack and said " **Guncho Tsurara (Icicle Flock)"** , several icicles appeared in front of him. The icicles sped towards the enemy, swerving in the air as they set their sights on Tenzo who retracted his hand, and jumped up into the air to which they followed.

" **Kuki Yubi (Air Finger):"** Naruto focuses wind chakra into his finger and fires it like a bullet toward Tenzo.

Tenzo ran through his own hand seals, stopping on the seal of serpent. He slammed his open palm on the ground and countless wooden branches rose from the ground, interlacing as they formed a wide net-like wall made up of wooden branches. Naruto's air bullets smacked into the wall, tearing through the man's wall and causing Tenzo to leap out of the way as the bullets continued tearing through portion of the forest before dispersing.

Naruto disappeared in a body flicker, appearing behind Tenzo before smacking a hard kick into his back, sending said man crashing back into his back. Tenzo kicked himself up as Naruto blurred toward him once more and grabbed onto Tenzo's hand, pulling him in for a punch to the face which the ANBU commander dodged with a twist of the head to the side.

Tenzo locked arms with Naruto, clutching at each other's palms as they struggled to push each other back.

The two jumped away from the other, both panting harshly with beads of sweat trailing down their forms. The whole field surrounding them was lined with scorch marks, small bits and remainders of Naruto's ice jutsu and tall roots and branches of trees, spanning a wide distance and surrounding them. They were all cut in half and some obliterated into tiny splinters proof of the intensity of their battle.

Tenzo began running through a long chain of hand seals while Naruto allowed another black receiver to seep into his hand, his form tensing as he awaited his opponent's attack. "Doton: Doryūsu!" a long rumble rung through the earth, but nothing happened. He looked at Naruto who smiled and said

"I froze the ground, no Doton my friend, unless you can use Doton with you body."

Naruto and Tenzo began running through hand seals simultaneously and in similar fashion before both of them stopped on a similar hand seals and raised their heads to glare at each other, "Suiton: Hahonryuu!" they both exclaimed and water exploded from behind them, coalescing into wide floods of water which swept toward their intended target. The two long currents of water smashed against each other, struggling to push the other back with before the water rose intensely and exploded in a shower of water.

Tenzo and Naruto attacked each other yet again as the water dispersed. The armored teen threw a fist at the man which Tenzo slapped away with a palm, before responding with a punch to Naruto's gut which the blond pushed off. Tenzo swept at Naruto's feet however Naruto leaped over the leg sweep before twisting his body to reply with chin kick which the masked man blocked by crossing his hands in front of his hands.

Naruto ran toward the ANBU commander, who stood his ground and held his hands in the ram hand seal. Naruto threw a punch to the man who sunk into the ground expectantly; surprising Naruto.

Naruto channelled his Chakra to his eyes as he searched for the man's Chakra signature which he found difficult to trace. Hundreds of wooden branches snapped out of the earth, wrapping around Naruto's neck before pulling him down and snacking him into the earth with a harsh impact. Naruto stared through dazed eyes as Tenzo emerged from the ground and began travelling toward him.

Naruto squirmed futilely as he clutched helplessly at the branches restraining him. He looked on to see Tenzo edging closer to him, "Give it up hyoton user. Its' over." The man suddenly said.

Tenzo was suddenly surprised as Naruto stopped his struggle. His eyes narrowed in suspicion as the blonde's Chakra spiked dramatically.

Tenzo once more laid witness to the sight of the tree binding freezing, Naruto then merely flexed his muscles and his shackles were shattered, he cracked his neck before looking at his opponent and said

"No, this is where this ends for you." Naruto said as he brought his hands forth with his palms open, the chains around him also mirroring his actions as they coiled forward. Naruto thrusted his palm forth as giant icicles were hurled at his opponent.

Tenzo took several acrobatic leaps backwards as Naruto's icicles followed after persistently like a predator stalking a prey. The man jumped over another icicle; however Naruto appeared in front of Yamato and punches him away roughly and sending the man flying through the air. Tenzo met a tree hard in a rough collision, tearing through it before he landed on his back.

He winced as he brought himself to his feet, and began running through hand seals to stare at Naruto who stood some distance away from him with his chains clanking around and above him. The white haired teen began running through more hand seals, " **Hyoton: hyoryu no houkou (Ice release ice dragon's roar!** " Naruto's chest swirled up before he unleashed a laser of light that froze anything in its path.

Tenzo ran through more hand seals before he ended on the tiger seal and his cheeks puffed out, "Suiton: Suijinheki!" He blew out a high-pressured stream of water in a circular motion, the water rising up to compose some sort of wall around him which Naruto's technique smashed into. The water was frozn by Naruto's jutsu, the impact conjuring up an ice statue.

Tenzou was already on the move, running toward Naruto with a sword as he concluded fighting the armored teen from a distance with his jutsu would prove detrimental as he had more chakra and stamina.

He raised his Katana up to see Naruto raise his hand as well and Tenzo felt fear when he saw wind forming around the appendage. Naruto raised reared his hand back, before thrusting it forth and making Tenzo's eyes widen as a wind blade plunged straight through his form. Naruto seemed strangely demure about what he had done to the man and the reason why was proven as the man's form crumbled into wood.

' _A Moku Bunshin..._ ' Naruto thought as the clone disintegrated into nothingness before his eyes widened as he felt himself sink into the soft, muddy earth below him. ' _So the whole time he's been planning this._ ' Naruto thought as he sunk further into the muddy pool of earth. He was almost to his waist before a thought struck him and he said " **Funryu Tejun (Jet Step)"** Focusing wind chakra into his feet, Naruto can launch forward at an impressive speed, allowing him to escape his burial. He looked around, noting the ANBU's lack of presence before Tenzo came out of the melded out of the ground.

Naruto stared at the man irritatingly, it had been this back and forth and he was growing quite tired of it. The man was a Ninjutsu specialist, that much was certain and the level of Ninjutsu at his disposal were outrage it seemed, while less numerous and powerful, but Naruto did not want to risk killing the guy too fast, he had to make last a bit. However Naruto knew that they had to end this sooner rather than later and currently he was running out of options about how to do so.

The older man threw his arm back, grabbing it as it exploded into action by sending numerous trees flying toward Naruto. "Mokuton: Jubaku Eisou!" They branched out as they got closer, forking out into many branches while their edges bared into sharp stakes which looked all set to turn Naruto's body into a bulls eye mark.

Naruto channelled and saturated his hands with wind Chakra, a little wind appeared above his skin as he met the masked man's technique head on. His hyoton chakra was also at work freezing and breaking the wooden branches like they were made of glass. The few that snuck in Naruto raised his hands, cutting through them effortlessly and after a while all that remained were thousands of tiny splinters falling to the ground.

Tenzo's chest heaved up and down slightly and Naruto could note that the man was suddenly reaching his end, but so was he unfortunately. He concluded that the next attack would end the battle and as he had said he wouldn't resort to his tenant's Chakra, he knew he would've to use something powerful. And all he had were area of effect jutsu.

Tenzo breathed out a thin line of breath as his Chakra spiked for what Naruto assumed would be a high Chakra taxing technique and the man held his hand in the snake hand seal. His rather low Chakra would be up for one more Jutsu and knowing that breaking through Naruto's defence would be next to none, he was going to attempt something else entirely. Something he had never tried before in terms of offensive attack, "Mokuton: Jukai Koutan!" The earth and expanse surrounding both Naruto and Yamato cracked at varying positions and Naruto's eyes widened as tall trees grew instantly and exploded out of the ground. There were so many that Naruto couldn't count and they all unfurled as seemingly all around them another forest surrounded them, with the new acquisitions bending previously existing trees as they filled the space around them. All of them had their sights on Naruto, snapping at him and trying to ensnare him with their grips.

Naruto felt another tree wound itself around his back and panickingly the white haired teen used his hand to cut it to shreds, using both his hands to cut more of the trees as they lashed at him. One of the trees smacked into Naruto with its large bark, sending him into the emerging forest Tenzo's technique was creating. Naruto collided against one of the numerous trees, and almost immediately Tenzo's trees were on him, coiling and making squeaking noises as they wrapped around his form and kept him tied to the bark of the tallest one in the bunch.

Sweat travelled down Tenzo's masked face, as he exerted his whole focus on getting the trees to manoeuvre toward Naruto, "I h-have to end this right now." Tenzo grumbled lowly as his breathing now came out in erratic and quick intakes and exhales of air. He began stalking toward Naruto with stumbling steps, bending trees in his way with his ability before Naruto was once more in his sight.

Naruto was angry, screw being nice, he closed his eyes and when Tenzo got close, Naruto opened them and said " **hyouton shiva hyougaki (Ice release shiva ice Age)"** and a wave of ice left his body, freezing everything around him, Tenzo was too close and too tired to jump away so he got caught in the jutsu and his legs were frozen solid before they broke. The anbu fell to the ground and watched as his opponent freed himself, he knew he was going to die, so he asked

"may I know who my killer is?" he asked resigned and Naruto looked at him before saying

"Uzumaki Naruto at your service" the anbu could not feel surprise as an air bullet pierced straight through his chest, and so ended the life of the last Mokuton user of konoha.

 **Scene change**

As Yugao Uzuki was falling to the ground qhe flipped herself and landed on her feet, she stood as her opponent came flying in front of her, the teen landed in front of her looked at her with boredom. She took her katana and settled in a loose stance with her sword, her opponent merely shrugged before he took a sword handle with a stone at the tip with the kanji symbol for "Water" written on it. She was wondering about the purpose of such a weapon before a blade made of water appeared from the handle, she raised an eyebrow before saying

"a peculiar weapon you got there."

"Thanks, Ensui (Dark Water) is my sword. It's blade is formed by stabilizing water molecules, therefore it can take the attributes of each state of water. I made it myself. Now let's begin shall we." and Naruto rushed Yugao with his sword, the woman merely steeled herself before saying " **Konoha-Ryū Mikazuki no Mai (Tree Leaf-Style Dance of the Three Days' Moon)"** The anbu created two shadow clones before proceeding to assault the enemy, with the clones attacking from the left and right and the user attacking from above. The assault occurs on three fronts simultaneously; it is almost impossible to catch the opponent flat-footed. Furthermore, the mighty sword strikes are so severe that receiving a blow from just even one among the three will inevitably result in a fatal wound. The style and magnificence of how the user and their shadow clones leap and swing their swords at the opponent's upper body creates an orbital pattern, the elegance of which is reminiscent to the shape of a crescent moon, hence the technique's name. This was one of Konoha's strongest kenjutsu techniques, executed flawlessly by konoha's foremost kenjutsu expert outside of kushina Uzumaki, so it came as a big surprise when Yugao got shoulder tackled by Naruto through two trees the moment she started her technique, and both her shadow clones got dispatched before they even take a single step. Yugao stood on shaky legs before sitting blood and winced when she felt her ribs broken, she then looked at her opponent before saying

"How...

"how did I strike the **Mikazuki no Mai** down, there is a reason that konoha is not known for kenjutsu, you guys are too stiff, when the **Mikazuki no Mai** is initiate there is an oppening in your stance to prepare for the assault, all I did was take advantage of said oppening. Now it's my turn, try not to die, **hyomon ken** **Hisame (Hail)"** Naruto formed large chunks of ice being out of the moisture in the air and then are rained them down on his target with tremendous force. Yugao managed to dodge all of them and thebones she could not dodge she simply batted away with her sword, she then took a stance and said " **Hiken: Tsukikage (Secret Sword: Moonlight)"** Yugao rushed her opponent with great speed before leaping towards and attacking him with a vertical sword strike, leaving a trace of afterimage in the process. That was supposed to be a slam dunk, so when she took a kick to he midsection she was stunned but she procédure that she was atop level kunoichi when she took a piece of paper with seals on them before throwing it at Naruto and said "kai" the seal glowed before a huge amount of kunai with explosive tags came racing towards the armoured white haired teen who did not even seem interested in dodging, the kunai exploded and engulfed him in a searing inferno. Yugao came down from the tree she was on and looked at her handywork, a second later angust of wind blew the smoke away, and her opponent was standing right in front of her no worse for wear, he looked at her before saying " **hyomon ken** **Tō Kekkai (Ice Barrier)** This technique coats the wielder's entire body with a thick shell of ice, protecting them from most attacks. I was expecting more from you but it seems you are simply too weak to be a challenge, give me your best shot I won't move from here." the comment angered the kunoichi who took a stance before saying " **Oborozukiyo (Hazy Moon Night)!"** and she rushed forth towards her opponent with a sword strike, leaving a trace of afterimage. Naruto didn't react in time and ended up with as word in his gut, Yugao looked at her opponent and said

"arrogance was your downfall."

"stupidity is yours." answered the armored teen before he turned into water, Yugao was surprised before a sword pierced her guts, she looked behind her and saw Naruto standing behind her, she asked "when?" "after the blast I made a clone and hid myself, since you are dying anyway I will tell you my name, Uzumaki Naruto." and he left her. Yugao soon died after that.

 **Scene change**

Kakashi was not having a good time, he was surrounded by mist so thick he could not see more than a few feet in front of him, and to make matters worse he was being attacked by water whips from all directions, the guy he was fighting made sure to make him suffer with each hit, they all missed anything vital, but they broke bones, like his ribs. One whip came from behind and wrapped around his throat, threatening to break it, he chaneled some lightning into the whip hoping to shock his opponent but to his surprise not even a spark flower through the whip. He gasped and said

"how... gasp... is... That... Possible?!" his opponent merely chuckled before he said

"pure water is not a good conductor of electricity, in fact it conducts electricity as much as Rubber does, it takes more chakra control to make but in the end it is worth it. Oh and by the way, Kinoe and Yugao are dedans, so it's just you and me now, just like the valley of the end, but enough talking about the past it's tipe for you to FLY." he said before lifting kakashi in the air and slamming him into the ground, once then twice, then thrice, he then threw him through a tree. Kakashi stood shakily before saying

"Naruto? No you can't be, I KILLED you at the valley of the end. Jiraya sama, said that you were no longer on the contract."

"Ah yes the contract, I just signed a new one, you just gave an opportunity to leave konoha, now all I have to do is kill you and I will be on my way." Kakashi stood up and said

"It seems, I still have to teach you something demon, a battle can change at any given moment, all one need is a good strategy and an oppening, that is what experience is all about." before he took a scroll, he swiped some blood on it and went through the signs for the kuchiyose no Jutsu be for he slammed on the ground and screamed " **doton kuchiyose Tsuiga no Jutsu (earth release summoning tracking Fang jutsu)"** and a small tremor was felt the tremor travelled in the mistuntil it reached Naruto would did not dodge and before he knew it a group of dogs appeared around him ready to kill him.

The first one was **Pakun** a small, pug-like dog with brown fur and a dark brown snout and ears. He has pink-coloured paws and wears the standard outfit of Kakashi's ninken which consists of a blue vest with the heno-heno-moheji seal and a Konoha forehead protector, but his is worn on top of his head. He also wears a bandage on his right front leg.

Another one was **Bull (** **ブル** **, Buru)** Bull is the largest summon in Kakashi's ninken pack. He has dark fur and wears a spiked collar. He also wears the standard outfit of Kakashi's ninken which consists of a blue vest with the heno-heno-moheji seal and a Konoha forehead protector worn on his left front leg.

The next one was **Urushi (** **ウルシ** **)** Urushi has white and light-brown fur, along with long spiky tufts of hair on his head. His eyes greatly resemble traditional Japanese angry eyes. Being one of Kakashi's ninken, he wears the standard blue vest with the heno-heno-moheji seal and a Konoha forehead protector around his neck.

Another one was **Shiba (** **シバ** **)** He has light grey fur with a white underside and a black crest on his head reminiscent of a mohawk. His eyes are round and have dark markings above them. He also wears the standard outfit of Kakashi's ninken which consists of a blue vest with the heno-heno-moheji seal and a Konoha forehead protector around his neck and bandages on his front legs

The next one was **Bisuke (** **ビスケ** **,Biscuit)** He has tan-coloured fur with brown highlights on his long ears and legs. He has the kanji for "shinobi" (忍) in the middle of his forehead and has dark, circular markings around his eyes. He wears the standard outfit of Kakashi's ninken which consists of a blue vest with the henohenomoheji seal and a Konoha forehead protector around his neck.

Another one was **Akino (** **アキノ** **)** He has tan fur with one white strip starting from the top of his head and going down his muzzle. He wears sunglasses and the standard outfit of Kakashi's ninken, consisting of a blue vest with the heno-heno-moheji seal and a Konoha forehead protector around his neck.

The next one was **Ūhei (** **ウーヘイ** **)** Ūhei greatly resembles a greyhound. He is reddish-brown in colour with a white underside and snout. Along with the standard blue vest with the heno-heno-moheji seal, and a Konoha forehead protector around his neck. He also wears bandages around his neck, head and left, front paw.

the last one was **Guruko** He has tan fur, a white snout, long ears that have a dark brown colour and noticeably more pronounced whiskers than the other ninken. He wears the standard outfit of Kakashi's ninken, which consists of a blue vest with the heno-heno-moheji seal and a Konoha forehead protector on his forehead. But it did not matter what they planned on doing to him, as they were frozen solid the moment they came near Naruto who merely looked at them with pity.

Back to kakashi, he was wondering if the ninken managed to kill Naruto, his answer came as multiple air bullets pierced his limbs immobilising him, the mist cleared and he saw his student surrounded by multiple ice statues that looked like his dog's, Naruto merely looked at him before saying

"Since you were kind enough to lecture me, allow me to tell you something. You are in the greatest danger when you execute a flawless strategy. That, too, is the way of battle. Another thing, expérience means little in the face of overwhelming différence in skills" before Kakashi could say anything, Naruto riddled his body with air bullets, he did not stop until Kakashi's body was barely recognisable. He then made an ice mirror behind him and sinked into it.


	4. Chapter 4

_**The ice dragon of Kiri**_

 **Chapter 4**

Konan, a relatively tall woman who had short, straight blue hair, grey eyes with lavender eye shadow, and a labret piercing. Konan's eyelashes are shown to be a diagonal line at the bottom corner of her eyes. She has worn a large light blue paper flower in her hair since she was a child. Her facial expression was usually neutral, though usually protested or looked worried when Nagato performed a technique that would debilitate him. She wore the Akatsuki cloak and her Akatsuki ring on her right middle finger, the kanji on it meaning "white" (白, byaku, haku). She also wore orange nail polish. Although she never removed her Akatsuki mantle, it was revealed that underneath it she wore a revealing navy blue robe, with a large hemline on the front, and exposed her arms, her back, the lateral part of her breast, and her belly, with her navel being surrounded by four more piercings; instead of the standard sandals and leg-warmers, she wore a pair of blue pants that also functioned as her shoes, with white high heels, inverting the organisation's standard colour scheme, walked along the cold and dark halls of the tower she and Nagato had taken as their base of operations, like all places in Amegakure (village hidden in the Rain) the building was the epitome of industrial style architecture. Pipes ran along the walls and ceiling, the entire building was made of metal rather than wood or brick and gave the entire infrastructure a cold unfeeling air; it was the same everywhere in Ame too. Yet Konan noticed none of this as she walked through the hall, having long since grown used to the cold and unfeeling structures. She came to a stop at a door at the end of the hall, opening it she walked in and moved to the back where there was an opening leading to the outside.

Like always Nagato's god realm path or Pain as he had taken to calling himself was there, the body that was used for this one was that of her friends Yahiko, Yahiko had short spiky orange hair and blue eyes. As the Deva Path was the body of Yahiko, it had retained all of his physical features from when he was alive, most notably his medium length spiky orange hair. But as a Path of Pain, the Deva Path possessed Nagato's Rinnegan, bore six piercings, a metal bar through each ear, three studs through the side of its upper nose, and one spike stud on each end of the bottom lip. It also had three piercings on each wrist, at least one on its upper wrist and some just under his neck. His face became also a little pale. On his right thumb, he wore a purplish-grey Akatsuki ring that bore the kanji for "zero" (零, rei). He also wore a necklace, which was somewhat similar to the one worn by the Sage of the Six Paths. Another noticeable difference between the Deva Path and Yahiko is the expression on their face: as the Deva Path, Yahiko's face bore no telling expression and was in all sense, a walking corpse. he was sitting on the ledge as he looked out over Ame. The man did not even seem to notice the rain that was hitting him, though it probably had to do with the fact that the rain was nothing more than a byproduct of his sensory jutsu he used. A small twinge of pain caused a slight falter in Konan's steps as she walked up to what had once been the body of their friend, it was one of the few things that made her weary of the man she called a brother.

"You have need of my services Pain-Sama?" she asked as she walked up behind Pain.

For a while Pain didn't speak as he continued staring out over the city, his city; finally, "an intruder was able to get into Amegakure undetected." Konan felt a small slip in her emotional mask as her eyes widened ever so slightly, Pain was able to sense everything that happened in Ame with his jutsu so for someone to be able to slip past his guard meant whoever it was was an expert in stealth and knew not only knew that the jutsu was there but also its weakness. "I was only able to sense him as he was leaving my range, I want you to find this person and deal with them; we can't have someone finding out where Akatsuki is located yet. If they have left Ame I will need you to get in touch with Zetsu and track them down."

"Of course Pain-Sama," Konan said in an emotionless voice as she put her mask back in place.

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A small grey fox with orange spots hopped into a rather spacious cave. However while the fox looked completely normal to most people, the one person who was familiar with foxes knew better. The fact that this fox was anything but normal became apparent when it opened its mouth and a young man crawled out, his form looking as if it was stretching while in the mouth. The person soon revealed himself to a man with spiky white hair and blue eyes, wearing a long black hooded cloak that reached to the ground and covered his entire frame. He was wearing a black face mask that covered the bottom half of his face and had a slashed Konoha Hitea-ate on his forehead.

Grabbing a scroll from his pouch the white haired man unrolled it and channeled some chakra into the scroll causing a puff of smoke to signal the contents being unsealed as a small pile of fire wood appeared. The blond set up a small fire pit and pulled out another scroll, unsealing it revealed the contents to be fresh meat. starting a fire the blond stuck the meat on a spit and began to cook it over the open fire adding spices as he rotated the spit, when it was done he brought a hand to his mask and pulled it off revealing six whisker marks on his face. Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze leaned back against the wall of the cave as he ate his food, his mind thinking about all that had happened in recent years.

It had been about two weeks since he had killed kakashi; Naruto had learned many things in that time. He now had a better understanding of the situation of the Elemental Nations right now. Naruto had also started learning the ins and outs of Jiraiya's spy network; during the retrieval of tsunade mission, the former blond had been officially introduced to the second in command and the one to take over in case something happened to Jiraiya. After learning about the spy and information gathering business the young Uzumaki Namikaze heir had set himself to building one of his own in secret, while it still was not as vast as his sensei's the blond had been able to get information faster than Jiraiya could with his network.

This was due to the fact that Naruto had not used other people for his network but rather an extensive array of seals partially based off of the crystal spy orb that the Sandaime Hokage used to keep an eye on the village. The seal was called an information sealing array, what it did was pick up the vibrations and wavelengths that people spoke in. Those wavelengths and vibrations were sent through several seals that translated them into words, the words would travel through another set of seals and into one of several specially designed **Kage Bushin's** variants that Naruto had sealed into a containment seal. Every month several clones would disperse and send information to Naruto who would have to take a day to sort through it all, this was easily Naruto's greatest and most extensive accomplishment with seals. Of course like with all great idea's and abilities this one had several drawbacks that made it problematic, the first was that when the clones dispelled themselves and sent information to Naruto it would take a full day of meditation to sort through them. This required him to find a safe place to be as he sorted through the information, if he was in battle it could easily leave him vulnerable to attack. The problem itself was mostly solved as Naruto had set up a two safe houses where he could use **makyo hyoushou** to should he require it, one was in Kiri and the other was in Kumo. His second problem was that eventually his seals would run out of clones to send him information, each one had a total of five hundred so it would be a while before it ran out but it would eventually become a problem. The third problem was the information itself, when Naruto started putting the seal arrays around the cities he visited he did not limit himself to one place per city. Naruto had placed several seals in each city; places like bars, taverns, whore houses, theaters Naruto even had several in the council rooms and Kage towers of Konoha Kiri Iwa and Kumo. A lot of information came in from those places and most of it was useless to Naruto, this meant he had to separate the trash from any useful information he got; Naruto was after specific information, namely he wanted to know everything he could about Akatsuki.

Unfortunately his network had drawn up mostly blanks, the only information that was available on the group was already known to him. They had started off as a mercenary unit, taking jobs for a small fee and because they gained a reputation of never failing a mission they began to get more and more jobs. After awhile they began to express an interest in Jinchurikki and Bijuu in general, though so far they seemed to have only gone after Naruto himself. Other than that nothing had come up, the only thing he had been able to learn about the group was that there was not much to learn. Naruto only had one piece of information that he had decided to follow up and it was more a matter of having a gap in his info rather than actual information itself.

 **Amegakure**.

The hidden village had been in a lock down for several years now, no one really knew the true reason but rumor had it that the village had been experiencing a civil war. Seeing as how he had no other leads to follow Naruto had decided to go to Amegakure, not bothering to tell even his sensei of his journey to the hidden village. When he got their he had still not been able to find out much in the way of knowledge on Akatsuki themselves, he had been there for about two weeks but all he had found out was info about the two figures that were said to rule the village. A man known as Pain, who was said to have killed Hanzo the Salamander in single combat; an incredible feat considering the man had been rumored to be even stronger then Hiruzen Sarutobi the professor in his prime. This Pain also seemed to have a deep grudge against Hanzo, having killed not only anyone associated with the man but his family as well. The other figure was known simply as the Angel of Ame; apparently it was a woman who was seen as Pain's messenger to the people. He had not been able to find out much more other than that Pain was hailed as a god and had a powerful sensor jutsu where he infused his chakra into the rain.

Naruto snapped out of his musings when he felt a presence just outside the cave trip a few sensor seals he had placed here before he went into Ame, he created a quick **Kage Bushin** to clean up the mess he made while he went outside to investigate. Creeping outside the cave Naruto looked around the forested area, finding nothing he frowned. He was just about to go back inside when instincts had him rolling to the left, just in time as several shuriken came and impaled the spot he had been previously standing. He took a moment to observe the spot where he was standing and saw that the shuriken were white, _is that paper?_ Naruto questioned before he dodged another set of shuriken.

Naruto quickly created a **Kage Bushin** before replacing himself with it, and then hiding himself in the forest as he gained a quick breath and came up with a strategy. Creating several clones Naruto had each of them put the invisibility jutsu over themselves and move out to find the person who had attacked him. Hiding as well Naruto crouched down on a tree as he waited for the information to come to him, when it did Naruto found himself getting the image of a woman with blue hair and an origami flower in it and an Akatsuki cloak. _She matches the description of the so called 'Angel of Ame' but there is also something familiar about her…_

Deciding not to waist another minute Naruto shot towards where the woman was found, shooting out of the trees he headed straight for the blue haired woman. Naruto reached into his pouch and pulled out several kunai, throwing them he raised an open palm towards the sailing weapons.

" **Fuuton: Reppusho! (Wind Release: Wind Gale Palm)"**

A gale of wind shot from Naruto's palm and increased the speed of the kunai, the woman with blue hair was not expecting the attack and therefore found herself unable to dodge them all and ended up getting a few small cuts. In retaliation she made several paper shuriken out of her cloak which seemed to be able to turn to paper at will, she launched them at Naruto who made a slashing motion and sent a **Kaze No Yaiba (Wind Blade)** towards them. The paper shuriken were shredded as the **Kaze No Yaiba** continued on, the 'Angel of Ame' created paper wings out of her cloak which merged with her back and used them to soar into the air and evade Naruto's attack. With a great flap of her wings several thousand paper senbon were shot towards Naruto in a literal hailstorm, unsealing **Ensui** Naruto began a deadly dance as he dodged and weaved between the senbon. Unleashing blasts of wind with his blade, hundreds of the chakra coated paper senbon were either blown away or cut to ribbons.

Naruto took a deep breath as the small cuts from the senbon he could not dodge healed, looking up he saw that the blue haired woman was still in the air. Deciding to bring her down Naruto launched several powerful blasts of wind from his sword, as the woman began to focus on dodging he created a **Kage Bushin** who disappeared in a burst of speed.

Konan continued to dodge the blasts of wind and while she kept a calm outward appearance she was mentally cursing, who ever this cloaked figure was was good. So far none of her attacks had any real effect and while she knew her power was not the strongest in Akatsuki she was still around the middle ranking in terms of strength and most people were unable to counter them so affectively, usually they were too busy being surprised by the fact that paper could actually be used as a weapon to do anything. Deciding that she had too caught this shinobi by surprise she began to disperse into paper, however her concentration was broken when both of her wings were sliced to pieces. Turning around she felt her eyes widen as she saw the blond ninja that had been attacking her right behind her, she was not given the chance to do anything as the blond sent a kick into her sternum. She soon fell through the tree branches, breaking a few on the way down and it was only thanks her perfect chakra control that allowed her to form her wings to stop her descent while creating a small chakra shield to block out the wind resistance.

Landing on the ground she was soon forced to ducked under a punch from her white haired attacker, she jumped back to gain some distance but it was no use as the shinobi before her kept on the pressure. Realizing that she would need to fight back Konan channeled chakra through her hands, turning them into paper blades and using her chakra to make them hard. She began to attack the blond using swift strikes with the intent to kill, aiming for vital points like the trachea and lungs.

Naruto soon found himself on the defensive as he was forced to dodge and weave through her paper blades, the woman had an excellent style that was able to fully utilize her agile body. Unsealing **Ensui** again Naruto began to meet her strike for strike, several tears appeared on their clothes as the two continued to battle but neither was able to get a good hit on the other. Naruto while physically far more powerful and faster than Konan he was hard matched to fight someone with two blades, having not done it before and was having a hard time keeping track of both blades.

Ducking a horizontal slash he was soon forced to dodge a thrust sent to impale his eye, turning around in a 360 degrees counter clockwise motion Naruto blocked another strike from her left hand. He tilted his head back to dodge a slice meant to open his neck, then brought his sword up in front of him to block her other hand. Deciding he needed to be on the defensive if he was going to beat this woman Naruto began channeling wind chakra through **Ensui,** making a slashing motion with his blade Naruto cut clean through the woman's paper blades, said woman leapt back as Naruto's sword passed through where she had been previously. The woman was just about to charge in again when she felt a prick on the back of her neck, then everything went black.

The Naruto in front of her dispelled in a puff of smoke as the real Naruto wrapped his arms around Konan's waist, picking her up in a bridal carry he made his way back to the cave.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Konan groaned as she woke up and for a moment wondered where she was, her eyes opened to try and discern her location but all she could see at the moment were blurs. As she shook her head to clear her vision she tried to remember what happened, Nagato… _Pain_ she reminded herself had sent her on a mission to deal with someone who had managed to evade his sensor jutsu until he was nearly out of the village. That was when she remembered she found him and they had fought, however after that everything went blank and she couldn't remember anything else afterwards but assumed she had been defeated. Though that begged the question of why was she still alive.

"I'm glad to see you're finally awake."

Her head snapped to the source of the voice and saw that it was that blond shinobi sitting near a fire as he cooked some kind of stew over it. Her eyes widened and she tried to get up only to realize that she was tied and bound, she looked down at herself to see .8 grade ninja wire binding her arms and legs together. She immediately began to try and channel chakra to cut the ropes but soon found out that she could not even feel her chakra.

"That won't work," the teen said from where he was, making it obvious he knew what she was trying to do.

Konan snarled at the man as real emotion showed up on her face for the first time in years, "What did you do to me!"

"I sealed off your chakra," the blond said with a shrug as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Konan's eyes widened, "What!"

"Would you stop shouting," Naruto said in an annoyed tone, "since you attacked me I decided to seal off your chakra." he looked at Konan and she could almost see the smirk through the white head's mask, "if you're a good girl I may give it back to you eventually."

Konan glared at Naruto as she began to struggle even harder, knowing it was futile Naruto turned his attention back to his stew. Konan's struggle continued for half an hour before she realized that she would not be able to escape, without her chakra she was as helpless as a civilian and the wire was bound too tightly for her to wiggle free. With nothing left to do Konan merely stared up at the ceiling of the cave, about an hour later a delicious smell filled her nose. Turning her eyes she saw her blond captor kneeling down next to her with a bowl of stew.

"Are you hungry?" he asked and when he received no answer he sighed, "You know not answering me only hurts yourself."

"I'm not hungry," Konan finally said only for her stomach to betray her a second later, despite the situation Konan blushed in embarrassment.

Naruto chuckled, "so… hungry?" he asked again with amusement evident in his voice.

"Not like I can eat anyway in case you haven't noticed," Konan said sarcastically as she wiggled her arms which were currently tied to her body.

"That could be a problem," Naruto said nodding in agreement and causing Konan to scowl at the amusement in his tone. "And unfortunately I can't just untie you as that would ruin the whole point of tying you up in the first place, aside from the fact that I don't trust you not to kill me the first chance you get. Thankfully I have a way around that!"

Konan eyed him wearily for a moment as she tried to find out what he meant; when she did sent him a glare that would have melted lesser men, "I won't be fed, least of all by you!"

Her stomach gurgled again and Naruto shrugged, "If your pride means more to you then living than be my guest and starve to death."

Konan bit her lip as she felt her stomach going off again while Naruto moved to get up, "Wait!" she said.

Naruto paused as he turned around, "yes?"

"I…" Konan paused as she swallowed the bit of pride she had as a Kunoichi, slumping her shoulders she spoke again, "I would like that food… please."

Naruto nodded as he went back to her, kneeling down he tenderly picked her up and set her so she was leaning against the wall. Going back he grabbed the bowl of stew before sitting next to her, scooping up a spoonful of the food he lifted it to Konan's mouth. Konan opened her mouth without protest as Naruto brought the spoon inside her mouth before she closed it, the woman's eyes widened as the flavor of the food exploded on her tongue. While she did not want to admit it, the food was some of the best she had had in a long time; strangely enough she was reminded of Jiraiya and the times he would cook for her, Yahiko and Nagato when the man had lived with them. As she ate the food she could not help but spare several glances at her captor. She could not tell his age but from the sound of the voice he was fairly young, at least in his mid to late teens and yet he the way he walked and the confidence he exuded was the exact same aura she saw in most veteran shinobi that Akatsuki had.

"Would you like seconds?" her captor asked and Konan found herself taken aback by the kindness and warmth in his voice.

"Er… no thank you," she said blinking as she wondered why she was being so polite to the person who had essentially taken her prisoner. She looked at him again as he went to clean out the bowl and sealed it and the food in a scroll, finally she asked the question that had been burning in the back of her mind since she realized her situation.

"Why did you spare me?"

Naruto turned to look at her and tilted his head as he found himself slightly surprised by the question, why did he spare her? She not only attacked him, but was also a part of Akatsuki so by all rights he should just kill her and be done with it. And yet…

Shrugging Naruto evaded the question, "I'm not sure to be honest." he looked up at the ceiling before looking back at her, "considering the group your with I probably should kill you." Konan instantly tensed even though she knew if he wanted to kill her there was nothing she could do to stop him. "Yet at the same time something tells me not to," walking up to her he sat down and leaned against the wall.

Konan watched the man as he closed his eyes, she was not sure what to make of that last comment; most shinobi would have either killed her by now or at the very least raped her or something, yet he had done none of this and even treated her well. Deciding to get more information until she could make her escape she asked him more questions, "what do you plan to do with me?"

Naruto sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, "you know I haven't thought about it; though I do know I'm not gonna let you go back to that crack pot you call a leader…"

Konan's eyes narrowed dangerously, "don't you dare talk about Pain-Sama like that!"

"Pain," Naruto said as if testing it, "is that what he calls himself these days…" Konan's eyes instantly widened wondering what this man knew about Pain. Naruto looked over at her, "I wonder… are you talking about Yahiko…" he watched as her expression fell and realized with small pang of guilt that her friend was dead. However that also left only one other option about Pain's identity, "so… Nagato is Pain eh?"

"How do you know these things?" Konan asked in a low and somewhat strained voice, she would not admit it but being reminded of her dead friend hurt. "Only a few people ever knew who we were, so how do you know this?"

Naruto hmm'd a second before speaking, "I'm not sure I trust you enough to tell you, maybe I will later though… if you earn my trust."

Realizing she was not going to get anything out of the teen she stayed quiet, eventually Konan began to feel tired and despite being in the presence of an enemy ended up falling asleep. Naruto looked over at Konan and gently lifted her up, moving over to a sleeping back he unzipped it and tenderly set her in. now that she was asleep he took a small moment to study her; Konan had short light blue hair done up in a short shoulder length cut with a small origami flower in it. Her face was perfectly heart shaped and held a definitive feminine beauty that most woman Kunoichi or otherwise would be extremely hard pressed to match; she also a labret piercing under her bottom lip. Her skin was a milky white and despite wearing the Akatsuki cloak Naruto could easily see the feminine figure that rivaled Mei. He studied her face for a moment, now that she was sleeping her face looked innocent, peaceful and even slightly vulnerable especially compared to the neutral or angry and annoyed looks she had given him when she had been awake. Resisting his natural urge to brush away a few strands of her hair Naruto instead tucked her in and got out another sleeping back from a scroll, laying in it where he went into a very light sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Konan woke up the next morning the same way she had last time, the only difference was the absolutely heavenly aroma that seemed to penetrate her nose. She moved around a bit and frowned when she realized she was much warmer than she had been last night, lifting her head she saw that she had been moved into a sleeping bag.

"Good morning!"

Hearing the voice Konan took her attention off of her situation she turned to look at Naruto who was currently over an open fire and had a pan in his hand. "Breakfast will be in just a minute," Konan blinked as she saw the blond flip something into the air and catch it back in the pan. A little while later he came up to her and sat down a plate piled with what looked like bread of some kind. Naruto unzipped the sleeping back before picking Konan up, much to her protest and propping her up against the wall, "Do you want any butter on these?"

Konan blinked again as she fought to maintain a neutral expression, "what are they?"

Naruto tilted his head to the side in a quizzical fashion before shrugging and decided to explain, "It's called French toast. Apparently their a foreign food of some kind, though I have no idea where they come from. So butter?" he asked again, Konan merely shrugged causing Naruto to sigh, "I suppose we'll just try both ways then."

Cutting piece of French toast off and sticking it with a fork Naruto brought it to Konan's mouth, said woman only hesitated for a second before taking it. Like last time the food was easily the best she had ever tried, and did not hesitate the next time he brought the fork to her mouth. As Naruto continued feeding her Konan tried to figure the teen out, she had no clue why he was being so nice to her, even going so far as to give her food and placing her in a spare sleeping bag so she would not get cold during the night. Nor had he touched her inappropriately in anyway, if he had she would have noticed since there were always ways to tell when someone had done something to her such as her clothing being ruffled or even removed entirely. Unfortunately she could not come up with any explanation that may shed some light the man's strange behavior, it was most vexing to say the least.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Konan asked after she finished swallowing a bite of food since while she did not care about the man, she had yet to see him have any food and she had to wonder if he had possibly poisoned the food though she could not think of a reason why he would.

Naruto let out a small chuckle, "I already ate this morning before you woke up, but thank you for the concern."

Konan let out a 'humph' but continued to eat. When she finished Naruto went about cleaning the dishes and getting rid of any evidence of him being there, looking back over at Konan he sighed. Moving back to her he sat down as Konan watched him, for awhile neither spoke as the two tried to come up with an answer to their thoughts, though both were thinking completely different things.

"Why do you do it?" Naruto finally asked as he figured beating around the bush would not help anything, nor get him the answers he sought.

"Why do I do what" Konan replied as she answered his question with another question.

"Why do you follow Nagato?" Naruto asked, "I mean I know he's your friend and all but really the guys obviously gone mad."

Konan snarled as she tried to lunge at him only to fall on her face, "Don't you dare speak of him that way! You know nothing about him, or the pain he's been through! Someone like you could never understand!"

"Someone like me huh?" Naruto asked with sarcasm, "well that's good because frankly I wouldn't want to understand some megalomaniac with the desire and ability to kill people without remorse all for the sake of power!"

Konan began struggling more as this man insulted her one reason left for living, "shut up! You know nothing! He's doing this to create peace!"

"Peace!" Naruto questioned as his incredulous tone turned into anger as her comment got the better of him, "How can trying to capture the Bijuu ever create peace! How could gaining that kind of power bring us peace! You think that by killing off the few people who truly understand what it means to suffer that Pain will bring peace! You are either a fool or very naive if you could even think holding such power would bring any kind of peace except the peace of the grave!"

"You're wrong!" Konan huffed as she stopped struggling having exhausted herself, "he is going to bring true peace!"

"Oh?" Naruto questioned his tone changing from angry to curious, "and what has your leader done to help bring about this 'peace'?" Naruto asked.

For a moment Konan was stumped, what had Pain done to help bring peace? For a moment her mind shut down as she tried and failed to find something, however she quickly shook it off as the blond trying to get her to question her beliefs and faith in her friend. "He defeated Hanzo and freed Amegakure," she stated with conviction.

"I see," Naruto said as he nodded his head, "and what else as he done? Surely a man who would be so honorable as to free a village would have done something else," he looked over at Konan who had gone silent. "What has he done to help your people?" Naruto asked, "what about all the war orphan's who became homeless due to your friends rebellion? Did he try to help them? Or perhaps he helped to rebuild Ame and the homes that were destroyed?" when Konan didn't answer Naruto nodded, "I'll tell you what he did, it was nothing! Your leader did nothing to help Ame's people! Instead he spends his days trying to gain power! He tries to find ways to capture the Jinchurikki and kill them for his own misguided goals, while his own people suffer!"

"Your wrong!" Konan stated in a strained voice and shook her head as she refused to believe what Naruto was telling her, there was no way what he said was true. Pain was trying to bring peace to the world, right?

Naruto seeing the young woman in obvious denial walked over to her and hauled her to her feet, lifting her up he carried her over his shoulder.

"What are you doing! Put me down now!" Konan yelled as she was unable to do anything else.

"No can do," Naruto said as the woman started to struggle. He created a **Kage Bushin** that stuck a silencing seal over her mouth, "there is something you need to see. Now then please do me a favor and shut up."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto found himself walking through the streets of Ame far sooner than he had expected to again, he had his cloaking jutsu on as he carried the young woman through a mostly deserted street. Thankfully the rain jutsu was not on or Naruto would have been forced to use more caution, it was a good thing Naruto had been able to find out that the jutsu had a weakness; the blond had learned that Nagato could only keep the jutsu going for twelve hours before he had to stop for another six. Naruto did not know why it was this way, but figured that the jutsu had some kind of cost chakra or otherwise that stopped Pain from constantly using it.

He looked over his shoulder at Konan to see her glaring at him, before shrugging said glare off; at least she was no longer trying to break out of his grip anymore. Finally finding where he was looking for he set Konan down against a wall. Leaning down he grabbed the seal and pulled it off her mouth.

"You're lucky I can't do anything to you right now!" Konan growled out as she glared at him with a look that Naruto was sure would have could have killed other men.

 _Hell I'm sure Jiraiya teme would have died under such a glare_ he thought with some amusement..

Naruto gave her an uncaring shrug as he stood up and pointed just a little ways away, "tell me what you see?"

Konan frowned as she looked towards where he was pointing, it was a city block of Amegakure that she did not recognize, or at least it had been. The entire area was completely destroyed, with a large crater in the middle that held the metal buildings of Ame in them, sticking out making it look like a graveyard city. However she could not be 100% sure in her guess, the only reason she was even able to tell it was a part of Ame was because of the fact that she knew they were still in the village and the few pieces of debris and buildings sticking out of the ground in the area were Ame style buildings. "I don't know what am I looking at?" she finally asked as she decided to humor him.

"This place used to be a living district," Naruto said, "along with thirteen other sectors nearly 75% of Amegakure used to live there. This place along with seven others are nothing more than ruins now…"

Konan's eyes widened as she looked out over the devastation, when had this happened? She looked out at the destruction as she tried to remember what had happened to cause such devastation, her mind however drew blanks as she could not for the life of her remember what happened.

"Do you know how this place was destroyed?" Naruto asked as he looked at Konan with his piercing blue eyes. Konan shook her head and Naruto decided to tell her, "this was where your friend Nagato took out his revenge on Hanzo the Salamander after he killed him." he looked over at Konan to see her gaining a confused look, "this residence was where Hazno's family lived, do you know what happened to them?" the question was rhetorical, he knew Konan knew what had happened to the man's family. "They were killed and Pain decided to leave this place as a testament to those that would oppose him," Naruto said, "I hear that Hanzo had a wife and a four year old granddaughter. Nagato killed them without remorse and without regret, but you already knew that didn't you?"

Konan grit her teeth as she tried to justify Nagato's actions, she went through several counter arguments in her mind to help her deny what the white haired man was saying. Yet everything she tried to think of, everything she wanted to say sounded hollow to her ears as she looked at the devastation.

"Did you know that this was not the only place where your friend exacted his revenge?" Naruto asked in a quiet voice. "Of the thirteen other living sectors six of them were destroyed the same as this one, anybody who Nagato even suspected of being even remotely loyal to Hanzo was killed along with their families. He didn't care whether they were truly loyal, just afraid to stand up to Hanzo or even were unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire; all of them were killed in Pain's quest for revenge." Naruto looked over at Konan when he heard a small sob, he turned to see the beautiful blue haired woman choking back tears as she tried to struggle against the idea that her friend could do such a thing. Naruto held in a wince, he never liked to hurt a woman be it physically or mentally; the blond shinobi was not sure if it was some kind of chivalrous nature or just that he could never stand to see others hurting, but it was always hurt to see a woman cry.

He walked up to her and kneeled in front of her, Konan slowly reeled in her tears as she looked at him. "I have one more place I want to show you," Naruto said and Konan was once again taken aback by the compassionate nature of his voice. "If I release your bindings will you promise to do as I say?" he asked as he looked at her with those eyes that seemed to look straight through her and into her very soul.

Konan was truly compelled to say no, not just because he was supposed to be her enemy but also because she was afraid. Her faith in Nagato had taken a large hit today and Konan was afraid that what this man had to show her would irrevocably shatter any confidence she had in the man she considered family. Yet for some reason she felt compelled to place her trust in this boy, _no man_ she corrected herself. She felt a desire to place her faith in this man who even though she had only known him for a little while, was starting to remind her so much of her departed friend Yahiko. "I promise," she said at last as she decided to place her trust in the person who had captured her yesterday.

Naruto nodded as he undid her bindings and made her put her Akatsuki cloak in a seal, leaving Konan in a set of clothes that did nothing to hide her amazing figure. She was wearing a pair of black skin tight leather pants that showed off curvaceous and amazingly toned and beautiful legs. As well as a sleeveless skin tight shirt that covered just her neck and a little under 2/3rds of her C borderline D cup chest, leaving the outer edge of her chest, torso and shoulders bare. The shirt also had a diamond cut in the center just below her collar bone and a V cut on the bottom where the shirt split down the center and moved off to fall down to the sides, allowing Naruto a glimpse of her toned stomach which had four piercings around her belly button. Naruto mentally swore as he looked away with a blush and tried to get the image out of his head.

Placing the invisibility jutsu over himself Naruto grabbed Konan's hand to activate the invisibility jutsu over her too. Konan was startled as she felt Naruto's hand grabbed hers, not just at the contact but also at the odd feeling of familiarity it gave, or was it comfort she felt? As she walked with the blond shinobi Konan noticed that he was leading her farther and farther away from the center of town, looking over she saw that he was heading towards the outskirts of the area that Nagato had attacked when he gained entrance into Ame to fight Hanzo.

When they got their she noticed with some surprise that there was a cottage at their destination, it was made out of steel and looked fairly new; mainly from the fact that it was not only different from any of the buildings found in Ame but also because this area had been nearly destroyed by Nagato's assault and none of the buildings aside from that small cottage stood. However what really surprised her were the small group of kids who were currently playing with a ball, there were three of them, two boys and one girl. The three stopped playing as they looked over at Naruto as he dropped the invisibility jutsu, if Konan had been surprised before she became absolutely shocked when the three gave a shout of 'Oni-chan!' and rushed over to Naruto. The three soon surrounded the two of them and began firing off questions at Naruto, said blond just laughed as he lifted the three of them up; placing the girl on his shoulders while the two boys were in each of his arms. Now that she got a closer look Konan noticed that they could not be much older than seven or eight years old.

"I thought you were leaving Oni-chan?" said the boy on the left, a kid with messy black hair and green eyes.

"Hey Oni-chan, who's the pretty Onee-chan you brought with you?" asked the boy on Naruto's right arm, he had dark blue hair and brown eyes.

"Is she your girlfriend?" the girl with dark green hair and blue eyes as she leaned on his head asked with a giggle as she held up her pinky.

Konan was hit with a wave of nostalgia as she watched the blond interacting with the young kids, though she blushed at the compliment and question that were thrown at Naruto concerning her. It was in a way so much like how she, Nagato and Yahiko had been found by Jiraiya-sensei all those years ago. For a few minutes she zoned out before being brought back when she heard a squeal of delight, looking towards the source it was to see all of the kids on a clone of Naruto as they headed into the house.

"I found those three kids scrounging around a garbage can when I was trying to find information on Akatsuki here," Naruto said as he saw Konan look over towards him with a questioning gaze. "Do you know what they told me there dream is?" he asked Konan as he looked towards the cottage.

Konan shook her head, "no."

"They said they wanted to lead a rebellion to free Ame," Naruto said as Konan gasped in shocked. "Those three kids were the only ones to escape from Nagato's revenge. Apparently their parents had them hide in a secret cellar before they were killed, is this familiar to you?"

"It's almost just like Nagato, Yahiko and I when we were younger," Konan said as she saw the similarities between her old group and the three she had just met. They even had plans to free Ame like Yahiko had come up with after Jiraiya-sensei had left only this time it was against Pain rather than when she and her friends had been facing Hanzo, these kids were living like they had and she knew that it was because of her and Pain that they were. She felt tears begin to fall down her eyes as she realized she was no longer able to hide the truth she had denied to herself, with the startling knowledge that Nagato had lost his way when he took up the name Pain and became blind by a lust for power and the belief that he was god, her faith in him shattered. Falling to her knees Konan began to cry in earnest, without her faith in Pain who had become her reason to live she felt even more empty then after Yahiko had died.

Naruto watched as the woman wept and could not help the feeling of regret that encompassed him, despite knowing that she had to cast off the illusions she put up for herself Naruto still found it hurt him to see a woman cry. _Curse my conscience,_ Naruto said to himself as he closed the distance between them and knelt down.

Konan was startled when she felt a pair of arms engulf her torso, feeling herself being pulled into an embrace as a warm feeling encompassed her; she instantly moved towards the small source of comfort she found. Pressing her head into a shirt she let out all of the pain and loneliness she had been feeling since Yahiko's death, after the death of cheerful boy who tried to act tough and be their leader had died Nagato had never been the same. He had started to become colder and colder with each passing day, so much so that Konan had to put up a wall around her emotions; a wall that had just broke. Konan gripped the cloth of the shirt she had buried her head into as she continued to let her tears fall unabashed down her face, she felt a hand start to make soothing motions as it rubbed her back and a voice whispered in her ear.

"It's alright."

Looking up she saw none other than the blond who had captured her and destroyed her faith in the one person she had left in the world. The same blond who had also in the short time she had known him reminded her of Yahiko and shown her a compassion she would have never expected from someone who was supposed to be an enemy. She look into his eyes trying to understand why he was doing these things, why he would strip away her beliefs yet at the same time why he was so nice to her despite them being enemies. It took awhile eventually she saw something she had not expected to see; pain, the young man's eyes were pools of pain and loneliness that she had not even seen in Nagato's or her own eyes. This boy she realized understood pain even better than she did, yet even then Konan could see that he still held onto his compassionate and caring nature.

"Who are you?" she asked even as tears continued to fall down her face.

Naruto brought a hand to Konan's face and gently brushed away a few tears, "I'm someone who understands pain." bringing his face up to his mask he slowly pulled it down revealing his face. "I am also a former student of Jiraiya's, like you. My name is Uzumaki Naruto."

"That was how you knew who I was," Konan breathed as she finally figured out how he knew of her and Nagato.

Naruto shook his head, "I have taken roots log, that is how I know about you," Naruto said figuring it would be best to use his sensei's real name instead of his nickname for the man. "I also know about how Danzo and Hanzo tried to get rid of you." Naruto shrugged, "to be honest I wasn't even sure it was you until I mentioned Nagato and Yahiko, all I had was your general description that gave me a hunch."

Konan felt light headed as she tried to wrap her mind around all the startling revelations today, it was all too much to handle in too short a time; it almost seemed like some kind of divine intervention from a real god. To think that the man before her was not only the Kyuubi Jinchurikki but also that he was a student of Jiraiya's as well, then he comes here and meets her showing her that Pain was not what she had thought he was. It was almost enough to make one believe in fate. She was brought back to the real world when she felt a hand cup her cheek, looking up she followed the arm to see Naruto with a concerned expression on his face.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I…" Konan paused as she realized she was not alright, "not really, this is all too much to take in."

Naruto nodded in understanding, "well then how about you don't think about it for now." Naruto stood up, lifting Konan who was still in his arms into a bridal carry. "How about we go inside and you can help me entertain the kids while I make some food," Naruto suggested with a smile.

Konan while surprised did not decline the idea as Naruto set her down and followed the blond shinobi inside, the two of them spent the rest of the day with the kids. As a clone of Naruto made food Konan and the real Naruto would spend their time entertaining the children, Naruto by telling them grand stories of all the places he had been to and Konan by teaching the little girl origami. Naruto had also tried his hand at the art but after several dozen paper cuts had given up, much to Konan's secret amusement. As the day wore on Konan was once again struck by the similarities of her own life, but this time they did not seem to hurt as much and Naruto had even gotten the woman to smile with a terrible joke he told. Eventually the three children passed out and Naruto and Konan put them to bed before the two found themselves sitting on a couch and looking outside at the rain, which had started up again.

"I guess I'm going to be here for twelve hours again," Naruto said to himself; well he could just teleport away but he would want to say good bye to the kids. He looked over at his… what was she now? He wondered, since she was not really his prisoner anymore. Acquaintance? Companion? Friend? He was unsure but supposed it didn't really matter anymore. "What will you do now Konan?" asked Naruto.

Konan looked at him and sighed as she closed her eyes, "I don't know anymore," she said in a soft voice. "Nagato had been everything to me and now that I don't feel I can follow him…"

"You could come with me if you want," she looked up at Naruto in shock as he continued to speak, "I'll take you with me, fake your death and you can stay with me. I'll do what I can to give you a happy life, if you want one with me that is," he finished with a sheepish expression.

Konan actually smiled at the look she had often seen on Yahiko's face, "thank you… but I don't think that's a good idea, at least not right now. If I went with you Pain would get suspicious and if he found out I have left Akatsuki, I have no doubt he would try to kill me."

"Well yeah, but he would have to get passed me," Naruto said as he puffed out his chest confidently.

"You would protect me?" Konan asked somewhat amused and somewhat shocked.

"Of course I would," Naruto said, "if you came with me that would make you one of my precious people and I always protect my precious people."

Konan smiled as she wiped an errant tear from her eye, thinking for a moment she looked back at Naruto. "I still think it's too dangerous, right now even as strong as you are it will not be enough to defeat Pain." Naruto did not even bothered dignifying it with an answer, knowing that it was a big false. "But if you wanted me to… I could spy on Akatsuki for you."

That got Naruto's attention; having a spy within Akatsuki would be the biggest boon ever, but… "That's pretty dangerous Konan-chan," Naruto said not even realizing the affectionate suffix he added, though Konan did as she gave a small blush. "Not only is it dangerous, but you would have to hide your intentions from someone you admitted to me meant the world to you. I myself would not want to do that, and I certainly wouldn't wish it on you."

"Thank you for your concern," she said as she unknowingly used the same words he had said to her this morning. "But I want to do this, you were right about him. Nagato has been dead for a long time, he is now Pain and I… I don't think he can be saved."

Naruto leaned over and wiped an errant tear that threatened to fall from Konan's eye, "if this is what you want I won't stop you. Just promise me you will be careful."

"I will," Konan promised a little surprised at the concern in his voice.

"Also… do you think you could occasionally visit these kids? They don't have anyone else and while I'll try to visit as much as I can…"

"Don't worry," Konan interrupted with a smile, "I'll look after them for you."

"Thank you," Naruto said.

For the rest of the night the two sat on the couch, eventually they both fell asleep with Konan using Naruto's chest as a pillow.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The next morning the two woke up to find themselves in a very compromising position, Konan was situated between Naruto's legs with her head on his chest while one hand had somehow managed to slip under his shirt and was resting on his muscular pectorals. Meanwhile Naruto had one hand wrapped around her waist which wasn't bad, however his other hand was currently inside Konan's pants and was resting on what Naruto recognized as a very fine ass. To make matters worse for both of them, Naruto currently had a morning stiffy. As the two sported similar blushes on their face Konan shifted a bit, causing her to rub against Naruto's increasingly enlarged member. The blue haired woman became positively mortified when she felt a low moan escape her throat as his length rub against her inner thigh, with a speed that would have made the former **Senkou** proud and definitely impressed the current one Konan shot off of him and sat at the edge of the couch.

For a long while neither of the two said anything nor could they even look at each other. Eventually Naruto coughed, "uh… listen I'm gonna go take a shower _*A very cold shower*_ do you think you could start breakfast for the kids?"

Konan looked at him for a second before blushing and averting her eyes, unable to actually speak the blue haired woman merely settled for nodding. Naruto got up and went to the small bathroom in the cottage, meanwhile Konan went to the kitchen and began to prepare breakfast. After a cold shower to get himself under control Naruto came into the kitchen and helped prepare breakfast, thankfully most of the lingering embarrassment that hung in the air was for the most part gone as the two worked in silence. A little while later the three kids woke up and stormed into the kitchen chattering to Naruto and Konan in an excited fashion, it took awhile but they were eventually able to get the kids to settle down enough to eat their food.

After that they spent their time telling the kids stories, several hours later the rain eventually cleared making it safe for Naruto to leave, much to the children's disappointment.

"Do you have to go?" the three kids asked at the same time.

Naruto smiled as he kneeled down so he was eye level with them, "yes unfortunately, there are a lot of things I need to do and I can't do them here." he looked at each of them and noticed that the girl looked like she was about to cry, he moved his hand up and gently brushed away the small moisture in her eyes. "Hey now there's no need for tears," Naruto said with a smile, "this won't be the last time you see me. Remember with that seal in your house I can come and visit you guys anytime, so no crying ok?"

The little girl gave a small nod before throwing herself at Naruto, said blond wrapped the girl up in a hug as he rubbed her hair and whispered soothing words to the little girl. They broke away a little later and Naruto stood up and looked at the three of them, "now do you three remember what I told you?"

"True strength only comes from protecting someone precious to you," the three said in unison causing Naruto to smile.

"Good," Naruto said, "I want you to remember that and make sure to protect and look after each other, can you do that?" He received three nods and smiled, "alright then we'll see you later." He and Konan made their way outside and left the small cottage.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Your later than I expected you to be," Pain said as Konan walked onto the ledge, not even bothering to turn and face her.

"He was a stronger opponent then I expected," Konan stated in her emotionless voice.

Pain turned around to look at her and saw that she did indeed look a little roughed up, her Akatsuki cloak was ripped in several places and he could see a few scars here and their denoting to where she had been cut. Turning around he put it out of his mind, so long as whoever had come into Ame was dead it did not matter. "Very well," Pain said giving Konan a clear dismissal.

Bowing slightly Konan left, walking through the office and into the hall. Eventually she reached a door and went inside, looking around at her sparsely furnished room she sighed and walked into her bed room. Throwing her cloak on the floor she fell onto her bed as she decided to get some sleep, as she closed her eyes her hand went up to clutch a necklace, more specifically the amulettes with an intricet seal pattern attached to it as she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto sighed in relief as he flopped onto the bed in his hotel, it had been about two weeks since he had gotten out of Ame and this was the first time he had been able to rest in a bed since then. Opening his eyes Naruto stared at the ceiling in thought, having had a lead on his next target. He absently wondered if he should tell his vixeb about what he had found, you see about a year after he began his training, he found a way to release kurama from his seal without killing himself in the process, while keeping access to her chakra, shaking his head Naruto decided against it for now.

Naruto was knocked from his thoughts when he felt the new chakra recognition seal he had added to the amulet pulse, sitting up Naruto began to concentrate as he felt out the sister seal to the one on his kunai. The seal was an alert for him to use the **makyou hyoushou's** ability to teleport other objects and people through the use of his chakra. His father Minato had also had the ability to teleport and warp other people and objects, to use this ability one had to have two kunai that would connect through the use of a specific set of hand seals and depending on the size and distance determined how much chakra one had to use to warp the person or thing that was touching the other Kunai. Naruto went through a series of hand seals and began to pull on the amulet who's pulse he felt.

Suddenly Konan appeared right in front of him, looking confused and slightly disoriented as she held the amulet loosely in her hands. Her eyes then focused on Naruto and a small almost imperceptible smile came to her face, if someone had told her that she would miss a man she had met only two weeks ago and originally been her enemy she would have told them they were mad before slicing their throat with her paper blades. But she could not deny that she had missed the former blond ninja, she found it odd that she could miss someone after only knowing them for a short time. But after he had broken through her emotional barrier she had felt lighter as if a burden had been lifted from her shoulders and the time she had spent with him and the kids had been some of the best she had in years, reminding her of the times Jiraiya had lived with her, Nagato and Yahiko. "Naruto…" Konan said in her soft and feminine voice as she gave him a small nod.

Naruto grinned at the woman, "Konan-chan was there something you needed, or did you need to tell me something?"

"I felt that it would be prudent to inform you of Pain's abilities," Konan said, "we did not get the chance to do that when I met you and it would be a good idea if you knew what you were up against."

Naruto stopped her and patted the spot next to him, nodding Konan moved over to him and sat down on the bed as he told her knew about the rinnegan. At the beginning of his training he learned about the rinnegan and the more he learned about it, the more Naruto felt that he was being drawn into the realm of myth, he had of course knew that the man possessed the Rennigan which was the first and most powerful of the three great Doujutsu's and the only transcended bloodline in known existence. But he had not known what all of that entailed exactly; apparently someone with the Rennigan had the ability to use all five of the main elements and the sixth element of gravity. But what was truly astounding was how Pain was able to manipulate dead bodies that he possess' through the use of chakra transmitters. Pain had six bodies under his control; the god realm which kurama told Naruto about and Konan told him it was originally her friend Yahiko's body which had the ability to use the Rennigan's gravity techniques. With it he could push and pull objects away from him, he was also the one who could use ninjutsu. The human realm was able to pull a person's soul from his or her body and read minds; this one was also fast and primarily used taijutsu. His Ghost realm path had the ability to absorb any type of ninjutsu attack. The demon realm was able to use a tail and held a number of powerful explosives and missiles it could launch. Animal realm path could summon large creatures to fight for him as well as the other paths through the use of a space time ninjutsu. The hell realm path had the ability to summon a demon to do his bidding, this one also had the ability to bring the other paths back to life.

Naruto sighed as he leaned back on his hands and tried to wrap his mind around the powers that Pain wielded and the sick jutsu he created, the blond could now see why the man called himself a god. With powers like his it was easy to see that the man could very well be one, fighting him would be extremely hard and Naruto knew he might not be able to defeat the man without taking damage, but heknew he will defeat him eventually. "That's a lot to take in," Naruto said slowly.

Konan actually felt a smirk come to her face, "now you know I felt two weeks ago."

Naruto laughed, "I suppose I do though mine is more of a feeling of being overwhelmed," they quieted down for a moment and sat together in comfortable silence. "Hey Konan-chan," Naruto said as he looked at her, "would you like to go get lunch with me?"

Konan blinked, "er… lunch?"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Konan finished ordering her food at the small restaurant they had entered, she had never been to a restaurant before. When she had been an orphan she had not even lived in a city so she never got the chance to eat out, and after the war she had not had the time as she ran around doing Nagato's bidding. The restaurant was pretty nice by her standards, the building had several booths and tables situated inside, the booths had soft red cushions on them and the tables had a small candle on it. There was soft music floating through the air, coming from a person who was sitting in a corner of the restaurant playing with a Junanagen (a 17 string instrument called a zither).

Konan looked over at Naruto to see him with his eyes closed humming a small tune in time with the music, "Naruto?" she spoke up getting his attention. "Why… why did you take me here?" she asked in an unsure tone. It had been on her mind since he had asked her to have lunch with him, she had never had someone take her anywhere even remotely nice and was not sure why he was doing this for her.

"Do I need a reason to want to take you somewhere nice?" Naruto asked as he tilted his head to the side opened his eyes to look at her with an expression of slight confusion adorning his face.

"Well… I guess not," Konan looked down at the table, "I was just curious."

"You've never done anything like this huh?" Naruto asked in a quiet tone getting a nod to his question, "then that gives me all the more reason to do this for you!" Konan snapped her head snapped towards the blond shinobi as he grinned, "Since you have not been able to enjoy the pleasures life has to offer it gives me all the more reason to make sure that you learn to have fun."

"Fun…" Konan stated in a soft tone, she had not been able to have fun for a long time. Spending time with Naruto and the orphans in Ame had been the most fun she had had for a while, the most fun in quite a few years in fact. Between the trying to survive as an orphan, fighting in a war and running around doing Pain's bidding she had not been able to have fun of any kind for nearly a dozen years. She looked around at the nice restaurant again before shifting her gaze over to Naruto, as she looked at the blond she felt a small amount of heat rise to her cheeks. _I wonder if this is a date?_ Konan asked herself as she looked around at the other tables, she had never been on a date before. Though she had read a little about them in the few romance novels she kept, this certainly felt like a date with the casual yet somewhat romantic atmosphere. _Does that mean he likes me? Or maybe he just finds me physically attractive…_ while Konan was not vain she knew she considered beautiful by most standards. Some of the missions she had done both during the war and for Pain afterwards had her using seduction techniques to assassinate her enemies.

The food soon arrived and she tried not to think about the questions she felt as she began to eat. The meal itself was a quiet affair, Konan would occasionally throw glances at Naruto who was eating peacefully and seemingly unaware of her looks. In truth he knew Konan as throwing him unsure glances, but did not feel that teasing her like he would normally do was a good idea right now. After dinner Naruto took Konan out to walk around the town, hoping to get her to experience a life without fighting for a little while.

Konan looked around at all the people walking and talking in surprise, the place was so peaceful compared to what she knew. She looked as couples walked hand in hand as they looked in the windows of various shops; parents were walking with their children and occasionally buying them treats. She felt a small pang of sadness at having never had the chance to experience any of these things after her parents died when she was young, the part of her that had started to come out since meeting Naruto would have jumped at the chance to experience a normal life. She was shaking out of her thoughts when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulder, stopping she turned her head she saw Naruto looking at her with a concerned expression.

"Hey are you alright?" Naruto asked with a little concern in his voice.

Konan nodded, "yes, I'm just not used to this…" she gestured towards all the people around her.

Naruto smiled, "we'll just have to make sure you become acclimated to it." Naruto said as he grabbed her hand and began to pull her around the village, Naruto took her to all of the different kinds of shops, places such as sweet shops, souvenir stores and clothing stores. Konan found that she was actually enjoying herself as they went around to all the different places Naruto took her too. By the end of the day Konan had a genuine smile on her face as they went back to Naruto's room.

"Thank you for taking me out to dinner," Konan said with a small bow as she tried to hide the pink on her cheeks.

Naruto gave a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head, "you don't have to thank me you know. I wanted to take you out, in fact I was wondering if you would like to do it again the next time we meet…"

Konan looked up at Naruto to see he had a light blush on his face as he averted his eyes, "I would like that," she said with a soft smile.

Naruto gave her his foxy grin, "Then it's a date!"

Before Konan could reply Naruto focused his chakra into her kunai, in less than a second the young woman found herself in her room right next to the paper seal Naruto had told her to put in her room. _A date…_ Konan felt her cheeks heat up at the thought of going on a date with the young man. She found herself looking forward to meeting Naruto again and going on that date with him.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Three weeks later…_

For the next three weeks Naruto would use the **makyo hyoushou** to summon Konan, she would give a report on what was going on with Akatsuki and then Naruto would take her out to do something fun. Letting Konan try out all of the activities and other such things she had missed in her life, whether it was going to a movie, having a picnic or taking her shopping for clothes; not that he didn't love the skin tight body suit she always had on, but he would always end up needing a cold shower after she left when she wore that. The fact that she continued to wear it even after they bought her clothes made him think she knew what it was doing to him and wanted to tease him, though it was hard to tell since she for the most part still kept a neutral expression except for the few occasions he caught her smiling. After the first three weeks Konan and Naruto began to see each other more frequently, having started to grow closer together. Whenever Naruto summon the blue haired woman, the two would usually go out to dinner or take long walks around or outside of whatever town Naruto was staying in.

As she continued to get to know him Konan began to open up to the blond a bit more, she began to tell him stories of when she was a little girl. Most of her stories involved Yahiko and the things he had done for her, she told the blond of how they had met and later found Nagato and had him join their group. She spoke of how Yahiko had declared that he would become a god and end the fighting in Amegakure, as well as stop the rain which Yahiko had likened to the peoples tears. She talked about how they had met Jiraiya and he later taught them how to be ninja, staying with them for several months. After Jiraiya left them the three Ame orphans had began to gain a reputation and other comrades who held the same belief as them, using their growing power they had spread their beliefs that war should be stopped without violence. However that was when they had they had become a threat to Hanzo, the leader of Amegakure who much to Naruto's extreme displeasure had struck a deal with Danzo Shimura to help deal with the three. Konan had confided to Naruto about how she had been captured and Nagato was forced to choose between having Hanzo kill Konan, or killing Yahiko himself. The blue haired woman told Naruto how Yahiko had thrown himself on Nagato's kunai and told Nagato to continue their mission to find peace. Naruto already knew most of it but it was refreashing hearing about it from someone who was there, that meant she trusted him.

When Naruto had asked her why she trusted to tell him this, her actions and answer afterwards had shocked him. Konan had quite literally thrown herself on top of him and began to cry, the beautiful blue haired woman told the blond how he reminded her so much of Yahiko; both in personality and personal philosophy. Yahiko like Naruto had desired to become the leader of his village, he had that never give up attitude that Naruto despite maturing greatly had never lost. Also like Naruto, Yahiko had the desire to become strong enough to protect Konan and Nagato much like how the blond shinobi was with his own friends. Naruto realized that he reminded her so much of her old friend that it was almost like she was with Yahiko whenever she spent time with him. When Naruto commented on this Konan said that she felt as if Naruto was carrying on the dreams of Yahiko instead of Pain. She had also confessed that when they were younger Konan had something of a crush on Yahiko who had become their leader when they were orphans and even afterwards when they began their journey to bring peace to Ame.

Deciding that because Konan had trusted him with what he knew was her most painful memory he should trust her as well, Naruto began to tell her about his pain. How he had been hated for his whole life because his own father sealed the Kyuubi inside of him, the abuse and malnourishment he had suffered in the orphanage. Being kicked out of said orphanage at the age of four where he was forced to live on the street for a year before the Hokage had found him and given him an apartment. He told her how the people of his village always looked at him with hate filled eyes, telling their kids to stay away from him because he was a monster and how the parents hate was eventually passed onto their children. Konan was horrified to know just how painful his life was, sure she had been an orphan but she always had Yahiko or Nagato when she was growing up and she had never been hated. Naruto had no one, even worse was that while it only happened a few times Naruto would occasionally get severe beatings by several mobs on his birthday, which was the same day the Kyuubi had attacked Konoha and been sealed into Naruto. The white head's only saving grace in the whole village had been the Sandaime Hokage, a few of his Anbu and a small Ramen stand who did not hold any prejudice against Naruto and treated him like a human being. It was then that Konan felt her respect and feelings for Naruto grow even stronger.

The two were currently sitting under a tree near a small beautiful lake with crystal clear water, as she watched the waves roll up and caress the shore Konan gave a smile as she thought about how her life had become a lot less bleak. She looked over at Naruto who was leaning his back against the tree with his hands behind his head, his eyes were closed and he had a small smile on his face. The peaceful look and feeling he gave off caused her smile to widen, she had spent quite a bit of time with Naruto in the last three months. Konan had thought about the blond often now a days, even when he was not with her Naruto would often worm his way into her thoughts. Whenever her thoughts wondered over to the blond it made her think of the feelings she had for Yahiko, the desire she had to be with Yahiko had slowly been transferring over to Naruto. Konan didn't even bother to think about how or when this had started happening and instead decided to just accept it. If there was one thing in her life she had learned when living as an orphan, it was not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Being a bit bolder than usual, Konan scooted herself closer to the young blond and closing her eyes leaned against him whilst laying her head on his shoulder. Naruto opened his eyes and looked down at her in surprise, "uh… Kona-chan what are you doing?" he asked in a confused voice.

"I want to be near you," Konan opened her eyes to look at him, "do you not like me being this close to you?"

Naruto relaxed as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer, "not at all, I was just startled. But are you sure your ok with this? Us I mean."

"I know," Konan said in a voice that was just above a whisper, "I don't care about that so long as I can be with you." Naruto looked startled as Konan lifted her head off his shoulders and looked at him, "there was only one person I ever thought I would love. After Yahiko died I didn't think I would ever get to find someone like that again," she gave him a large smile. "But you showed me something when I had nothing but the desire to follow the dreams of a man who lost sight of his goals and became corrupted by power and a madman."

Naruto knew who she was talking about, aside from telling him about Pain and the others she also told Naruto about the true leader of Akatsuki, Madara Uchiha. Apparently the old Uchiha leader was not as dead as everyone had been lead to believe; the man had not only survived his fight with Hasharima Senju but also had found immortality. Naruto told her the truth about it and she found it almost amusing that she was being manipulated by a brat even younger than her. Obito had been living all these years and when he saw the chance created Akatsuki, he used Nagato's desire for peace, warping and twisting it until there was nothing left but a man with delusions of grandeur. And Kyuubi decided to talk to him about it, Naruto was positive that Obito was the one responsible for its attack on Konoha at the day of his birth.

"After I met you I found something I had lost," Konan continued in her soft voice, "something I had not felt since Yahiko. The desire to be with someone and feel loved and hope, hope that maybe you can find a way to do what others couldn't."

Naruto frowned, "are you replacing me with Yahiko?"

"No, of course not!" Konan said in a shocked voice as her eyes widened, "while I admit the similarities between you two are close enough that you could almost be his brother, I know you are your own person. But you bring out the sides of me that only Yahiko could, that's why I want to be with you."

Naruto stared at the woman who basically just confessed her love for him, Konan may not have said it but Naruto had figured out woman enough to read between the lines of what they were saying to know what they meant. Nor had he detected a lie from her, so he knew everything she said was in fact true. Smiling Naruto gently cupped her cheek with one of his hands, caressing it in a tender fashion. Konan closed her eyes as she leaned into his touch and Naruto imagined that she would start purring any second now. "Thank you for being honest with me," Naruto said and gave the woman a smile as she opened her beautiful amber colored eyes to look at him. "I won't deny that after our first uh… encounter I began to gain feelings for you too," Naruto said as Konan giggled remembering their disastrous first encounter. "So if you're ok with me I would like to give us a chance."

Konan's breath hitched as Naruto began to lean down, his hand going from her cheek to below her chin as he gently lifted her head to meet his. She slowly closed her eyes as Naruto's face came closer so she didn't see when their lips met, but she did feel it and when it happened Konan felt a small jolt run through her body. Konan wrapped her arms around Naruto as she leaned into the kiss, Naruto did likewise as he wrapped his arms around her waist shifting Konan's position so she was on lap. At the first the kiss was chaste and light, merely applying a bit of pressure against each other before Naruto gently took her bottom lip and suckled on it. Konan let out a soft moan as the pressure from Naruto's lips increased, when it did she was surprised as Naruto slipped his tongue through the opening she gave him and began to explore. She was unsure what do to at first but within a few moments and with some prodding from Naruto gained confidence and began to duel with Naruto's tongue, moaning out as the she felt Naruto's appendage caress and entwine with her own. After a moment it was clear she had lost and let Naruto explore the inside of her mouth. When Naruto's tongue left her she pushed her own into his mouth and began to explore, a smile came to her lips as they kissed; Naruto tasted just like Ramen. Not surprising since despite not eating anywhere near as much anymore, that was what Naruto often took her to get unless she wanted something else. Eventually and much to their mutual disappointment the kiss ended, Konan sighed as she closed her eyes and snuggled into Naruto's chest.

"How much longer can you stay?" Naruto asked after a few moments of companionable silence.

"I can stay until tomorrow without Pain getting suspicious," Konan said after a moment of thought. "I usually leave the vicinity of his tower for several days to walk around Ame unless he calls, so we should be safe." Naruto nodded as he relaxed again, his hands began to lightly trail up and down Konan's side making the young woman feel a slight shiver. "Naruto?" Konan suddenly spoke up.

"Hmm?" Naruto mumbled letting her know he was listening.

"I was wondering if… I could spend the night with you?" Konan asked with a blush coming across her features. While she had stayed the night with him often, they had not slept together since that incident in the cottage with the kids.

Naruto felt his eyes widen slightly before he smirked, "Kona-chan are you making the moves on me so soon? I mean we just got together," Naruto spoke in a teasing tone.

Konan scowled at the blond as a large blush spread across her face before saw his teasing grin and it turned into a smile, she slapped his shoulder in a playful gesture. "No I meant…" she paused a bit to take a deep breath, "I meant that I want to stay with you… just for tonight at least I would like to feel your presence with me while I sleep."

"You know once all of this is over it won't just be for tonight," Naruto said in an amused voice as Konan looked up at him.

Konan snuggled back into the blond.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Later that night they had gotten to the hotel that Naruto was staying at and got ready for bed, Naruto was the first to get his nightly hygiene activities out of the way. As the blond got into bed Konan went into the restroom to do her own routine, a little while later she walked out of the bath room in just a small light red nighty that brought out her hair and blue lacy panties, Naruto noticed rather easily that she was not wearing a bra due to the fact that he could see her nipples slightly poking into the nighty and had to struggle to keep his natural reaction from coming to the forefront. The blue haired woman moved over to the bed and got under the covers, as soon as she did Naruto's arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her to him, turning her on her side as the blond pressed his front against her back. "Good night Kona-chan," Naruto said in a soft whisper as he kissed the nape of her neck.

Konan smiled as she closed her eyes and moved herself closer to Naruto until they were practically melded together, "Night Naruto-kun."

 **Scene change**

When Konan woke up, she smeled Naruto's divine cooking and she got up, she wore some clothes before sitting before her man, damn that felt good her man, and she observed him. After they had breakfast, Naruto took Konan back to Ame and told her

 **"** today, I found intel on Orochimaru's newest base, I think the Uchiha is there too, so I am planning on pay them a visist." Konan felt fear but she trusted her beloved and told him to stay safe he looked at her and thanked her before leaning down and he gave her a tender kiss on the lips.

"Mmm… I'm… sure… you'll… come… up… with… ways… to… thank… me…" Konan spoke up between kisses.

Naruto gave her his foxy grin as he pulled a little bit away, "you know after I Orochimaru I think I've got just the thing to _express_ my gratitude."

Konan blushed at the implication and tone of Naruto's voice, though she was quite eager to see what Naruto would do for her.

Naruto looked out of the cave mouth as he thought about the information he had just received, a smile found its way to his lips. It would be good to see sasuke again, his smile grew into a grin; it would be even better after killing him.


	5. Chapter 5

_**The ice dragon of Kiri**_

 **Chapter 5**

Orochimaru was not having a good day at all, it all started as a normal day, waking up, having breakfast, doing some experiments and training his future body Sasuke. Then a stranger came into his secret lair and attacked him, at first he thought that it was just a lucky low level bounty hunter but as the fight progressed he realised that the man in front of him was neither weak nor lucky, he was way out of his league. His right hand man Kabuto tried to attack him but he was frozen solid, the same happened to Manda his summon, he had never seen such control over Hyoton in his life, so of course he tried to get such a powerful individual's body for himself, a lot of good that did for him. So here he is, frozen literally to his bones, hell he couldn't even feel his chakra anymore, he knew he was going to die and, confusing himself, he did not feel fear, just acceptence, he saw his student trying and failing to even scratch his opponent, he let a shaky breath and just like that the snake sannin, Konoha's greatest traitor was dead.

As for Sasuke, he had grown over the years, now he was wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, similar in appearance to the lavender long-sleeved shirt worn by Kimimaro and which was open at the torso, with a smaller version of the Uchiha crest on his collar. He wore dark blue pants with a blue cloth hanging from halfway up his stomach to his knees along with black arm guards that covered his forearms and stretched up to reach his upper biceps. He also wore a purple rope belt around his waist, tied in a bow, in which he carries his sword. He was using said sword alongside chakra flow with Raiton chakra in order to cut through Naruto's Ensui, but the blade was not even cracked, after a few exchanges between them. He jumped backwards and said

"how are you not electrocuted, Suiton conducts Raiton chakra."

"yes, but pure water conducts electricity as much as rubber." answered Naruto

"I see, then let's test your taijutsu." said the Uchiha before rushing his opponent and they started a taijutsu fight, Naruto merely dodged all of Sasuke's attacks with minimum effort before he said

"Your form is perfect, a little too perfect, you lack flexibility" before ducking under a kick aimed at his head from the Uchiha who said "shut up." But Naruto apparently didn't hear him or he choose to ignore him since he continued "Not only is your form too rigide but the intercepter is clearly not for you, you should have chosen the same style as your mother the reaper stance." This time the Uchiha growled "Shut up!" but Naruto just continued as he dodged the blows that rained on him from his one time rival "also whenever you fight, you do not fight your opponent, you fight Itachi, that is not healthy and that could get you killed." This time the Uchiha roared "SHUT UP!" and he threw a left straight but he was blinded by rage and overextended his blow, Naruto just caught him easily and then threw him over his shoulder. After schooling the Uchiha, Naruto simply said " and when you are angry you have a habit of overextending and telegraphing your attacks." Sasuke just stood up before his arm was covered with lightning, swinging his appendage at the white haired teen he screamed " **chidori senbon"** and sent hundreds of lightning Needles at Naruto who merely sighed and said " **Bakufū Shōheki( Blasting Wind Barrier)** " and summoned wind around him to form a Tornado to protect him from the attack, when the tornado died down he saw his old teammate rushing him with a normal **chidori,** Naruto merely sighed, dodged the attack and said " **Shura Senpūken, (Asura Whirlwind Fist)"** a small twister forms around his wrist. He then punched the Uchiha straight in his chest sending him carrening towards a pillar, he struck the pillar and a hit with a sickening crunch. Sasuke stumbled and said "you are extremely powerful, I usually say that I will win but you are the only other person that beat me so badly, prepare yourself to face the Uchiha clan's fire ninjutsu **katon karyendan (Fire Release fire dragon fire bullet"** and the Uchiha spitted a white hot fire stream towards his opponent who said "impressive but ultimately useless **Suiton suijinheki** **(Water release water incampement wall"** Naruto countered with his own water release jutsu the two jutsu made steam, Naruto with his sensor ability dodged a fire ball from his right by jumping but that was just a part of Sasuke's plan, since the avenger went through several handsigns and said " **katon karyudan (Fire Release fire dragon bullet)"** shooting several dragon shaped fireballs at his opponent, since the armored wearing teen was in mid air he should not have been able of dodging so Imagine Sasuke's surprise when his opponent simply walked on the air and dodged his attack, but still the raven haired teen smirked, not everything was lost. Naruto simply landed and said

"Give up Sasuke, your attacks are not working, your katon is neutralized by my Suiton and Hyoton, your Raiton is neutralized by my Suiton and Futon, let me kill you so that I can go home to my woman." his answer was Sasuke's laughter, after a few minutes he calmed down and said

"I admit you are amazing but you are also cocky, let me tell something that Kakashi Hatake once told me, the flow of a battle can be turned with just a single flawless strategy, that is why a shinobi must not only have skills, but also experience and a calm mind in battle, he must also never underestimate his opponent. You just did and now you will pay the price **Raiton kirin**." and a flash of lightning appeared from the heavens, which was funny since it was a sunny day a few minutes ago, then from the Heavens came a divine beast of lightning, a kirin, after a thunderous roar the kiri went back to the cloads above and a pillar of lightning fell from the sky, like the Heavens themselves decided to Smith the sinners. After the flash of lightning only a large crater remained. As Sasuke let tiredness claim him, he heard a clapping sound coming from the smoke filled crater, as the dust was scattered by the wind stood Naruto his armor was destroyed perhaps leaving him with just his shirt, he started laughing before he said "man, that was intense, had it been anyone else that would have been it but unfortunately for you, I was your opponent, still that was impressive I guess, now if that is all you have, let me kill you and save us both the trouble of having you struggle." Sasuke for his part just stood in awe at the power of the man in front of him but he steeled himself and closed both his eyes, when he opened them, they were no longer with the three tomoe but they had a unique design in them he then looked at his opponent and said

"This the Mangyeko Sharingan, an advanced for of the Uchiha clan Kekkei genkai, It can only be achieved by killing ones best friend or close family member. I rarely use this but you are more than worthy of dying at the hands of the ultimate jutsu of the Sharingan **Enton Hibashira (Blaze release fire pillar)"** said the Uchiha and a black pillar of flames surrounded Naruto who screamed

"it burns! IT BURNS! STOOOOOP! I AM GONNA DIE... I AM GOING TO... Just kidding **hyoton: shiva (Ice release Shiva)"** and under the shocked gaze of Sasuke the pillar of black Amaterasu flames became a pillar of Ice. Naruto broke the ice surrounding him and looked At Sasuke before saying "Why are you surprised, just like your fire was blessed by Amaterasu to be able to burn through anything, so did Shiva blessing my ice so that It can freeze anything, and since you were kind enough to lecture me, allow me to tell you something like I told little kakashi before I turned him into swiss cheese. You are in the greatest danger when you execute a flawless strategy. That, too, is the way of battle. Another thing you must know, there is a limit that experience and skill can take you, that limit is when there is a complete difference in skill level, now let's finish this shall we **Hyoton** **Sennen Hyōrō (Ice release Thousand Years' Ice Prison)** " and he created many ice pillars, which encircled both him and his enemy. At his command, these pillars then move towards Sasuke, enveloping and crushing him, he then froze the poor bastard in an ice pillar. Looking at his handywork he sighed and said "Though this technique is very powerful, it still takes too damn much to complete, looks like its back to training after this little skirmish." he then looked at Sasuke and started thinking, should he just kill the bastard right here right now, or should he just take the Uchiha with him and tell him the truth about the Uchiha massacre. If he were alone against the Akatsuki, he would not have made any hesitation, Sasuke is a loose canon that should be eliminated. But now, he was no longer alone, he had his Konan to think about, he would need allies to protect her, so he decided against his better judgement to see the help of Namikaze and his group, but for that he needed some leverage, in other words, he needed the other bastard Itachi. So he just unfrozen Sasuke and created the complète version of the **shi bunshin no Jutsu (blood clone jutsu) the dorei bunshin no Jutsu (slave clone jutsu)** This clone was a living breathing clone but it was also a slave of whoever created it and since Naruto created the clone, the Sasuke look alike did not even try to resist when Naruto ripped its eyes out and crushed its balls before destroying the body in a very gory fashion. After the deed had been done, Naruto used **makyo hyoushou** to leave the area with his prisoner on his shoulder fire man carry.

 **Scene change**

It was a bad couple of weeks, first a team of her best anbu was slaughtered not even one hour from the village, and the bastard who did that had made a grave marker for them in the form of a fucking 1 kilometer in diameter tower made from ice that did not seem to melt for a whole week, if that was not enough, the ice was as strong as diamond, and could not be broken even with her super strenght. The only clue she had was the epitaph

 _Here lies Hatake Kakashi, a lying back stabbing little bastard_

 _Here lies Tenzo, an innocent victim to Konoha's lust for power_

 _Here lies Uzuki Yugao, a person who has lost much to war and greed_

 _Here lies Ookami, a poor shmuck whose only mistake was being at the wrong place at the wrong time._

After they retrieved the bodies of the anbu, they found that all the members of the team, but kakashi were killed fast and with dignity, Kakashi on the other hand, was tortured for a bit and had all his dogs killed as well before he had been killed as well and his body had been desecrated, so they concluded that it was personal with kakashi and that the other members of the team were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Danzō And her sensei were on the lookout for this Hyoton user because someone with that skill in the Hyoton deapartement had never been seen before, I mean the only hyoton users known were the yuki clan and not only were they extinct but they never were power players, they prefered technique above all, so for someone to appear with this much power from nowhere was very alarming. Now less than a few months later, the same person apparently, killed Orochimaru, OrochiFUCKINGmaru, alongside his sidekick Kabuto and the last Uchiha, he even collected the bounty on all three of them a couple of days ago, when they got all the bodies, there was nothing anormal, standard procedure, except that the Uchiha had been maimed and that his balls were crushed before he got killed, the stranger, who now was known as Hitsugaya Toshiro, no face of course, left a message that said 'the Uchiha clan are better left dead and buried, as for the sharingans, one Hatake Kakashi was enough.' Neither of these statement alarmed her, but still to have no intel on the man who can kill her traitor of a teammate was disappointing to say the least. As for Sakura, the girl was still in the blues because of the death of her crush, Yakumo was incredibly happy about the news, the same for a certain Hyuga heiress. She herself was quite happy, finally her godson had been avenged, even if she did not deserve to be his godmother. The Council made a fuss about the whole thing but all they could do was put a bounty on his head and that was about it.

 **Scene change**

Sasuke Uchiha, of the Uchiha clan was having a dilema, his teamate, the 'dobe' of the academy became a powerful powerhouse that beat not only him but Orochimaru and Kabuto in a three on one handicap match. Said person instead of killing him took him home with him and now told him that his clan was killed by Konohagakure no Sato higher ups who ordered Itachi to do It. After three days of thinking about it he finally asked the so called dobe something.

"Why? Why would the Uchiha clan rebel?"

"I am no genius, but I am also no fool, I knew exactly why Tobirama sama had given the Uchiha clan the honour of being the village's police force, it wasn't to show his respect or acknowledgement of the Uchiha's strength and service for the village as he made people believe, to even imply that to be the reason was an insult itself to not just the clan's strength, but their intelligence too if he expected them not to see his intentions, it was obvious that this was a ploy to keep an eye on the clan, and to suppress their potential. To understand Tobirama's plan, one needed to consult the nature of the role of a police officer and the science behind the strength of a shinobi, and even more specifically, the strength of an Uchiha.

For an example, to be a police officer of say, wave country, one is required to remain in wave country full time, as in live there and work on cases directly involved with the crimes taking place in wave country. In other words, you would be unlikely to leave wave country for any duration of time unless you were on vacation or on rare occasions, were required to collaborate with another country on an international or intercontinental crime. This meant that a police officer was for the most part, grounded to their place of occupation. Based on this information, it had not been hard for Minato to come to the conclusion that Tobirama had given the Uchiha clan this role to play in order to keep them inside of the village so that he can keep an eye on them, because as members of the police force, they couldn't leave the village to go on missions because their services were required inside the village." seeing that he had Sasuke's individed attention he continued

"To analyse the situation scientifically, it was important to take note of the shinobi biology. One example is the nature of chakra, which has a physical and spiritual component. A shinobi develops his physical chakra through physical training and his spiritual chakra through experience, which is attained through the many life and death battles that a shinobi has survived during missions or otherwise during war. But you couldn't properly develop this component of your chakra if you were stuck in the village handling civillian crime cases could you? There was nothing life threatening about that nor was there any chance of encountering any strong opponents because the A.N.B.U were there to handle the ninja related cases, and since the Uchiha's were required to join the police force when they became chuunin, it was incredibly difficult for them to attain the strength to match the strength of the legendary shinobi that Konoha has continuously produced over the years. Before Shisui, there hadn't been any kage level Uchiha shinobi produced in Konoha since Uchiha Madara, and even then, it had been only because of Shisui's involvement with Danzo and his R.O.O.T program that Shisui had been able to develop his skills with relative freedom to participate in difficult missions outside of the village." he posed and continued after that

"Nonetheless, the situation contained further oppressive implications for a member of the Uchiha clan, if a person was unable to activate their sharingan before joining the police force at chuunin level, he or she would be faced with a situation where they could possibly never activate their bloodline limit. Why is that so? It is because in order to activate his or her sharingan, a person needs to be faced with the real possibility of dying in a battle against a stronger and preferably, faster opponent. This requirement had made it almost impossible for a person to activate their doujutsu before they had to join the police force because of the nature of the missions that a genin participated in, for the most part d rank missions, which are nothing but ordinary chores that even a civilian could complete. An experienced genin could take on c rank missions, but that was still not dangerous or life threatening for a trained shinobi, as the only real danger a person could face was a bandit, which was for the most part, just a civilian with a mediocre weapon. This caused a great deal of distress for the Uchihas, as the best chance to activate their prized bloodline limit became the chuunin examinations, but even then, one was not guaranteed to activate it during the tournament and even if they did, they would only have one or two tamoe by the end of the tournament, in which case if they passed the exam, which suspiciously, they always did get passed the first time around, they would be stuck with an immature sharingan, unable to activate all tamoe because of the lack of real battle experience. This served to put the Uchiha clan in an awkward situation, as over the years, less and less members of the co-founding clan were activating their bloodline limits and those that did, were unable to fully activate or master their eyes and as an ultimate result, weakening the clan a great deal over the years." again seeing a look of understanding in Sasuke's eyes he continued

"And then there was the mangyeko sharingan, the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage feared the Mangyeko Sharingan a great deal after Uchiha Madara's betrayal, Hashirama sama had been pushed to his limits for the first time in his life and almost lost the battle against the rebel Uchiha, what made them even more weary of the Uchiha's power, was the ability to control not just any bijuu, but the nine tailed demon fox itself. Tobirama knew that his brother, despite his strength, was not immortal, there would come a time that he would die, and when that time came, there would be no one else from the Senju clan that could control the fox, if the Uchiha clan were to raise another rebel Mangyeko user, than it could bring an end to the Senju clan if he or she got their hands on the fox and the Uchiha would seize power over the village, so he devised this elaborate plan that would prevent anyone from the clan from leaving the village, make it easy to keep an eye on the clan, weaken the clan and if possible, deny them access to their bloodline limit. But it did not end there, there was still a chance that they could gain a mature sharingan despite his efforts, if so, then the plan would at the very least ensure that they did not gain access to the Mangyeko Sharingan, if they couldn't go out on dangerous missions, then they wouldn't lose any precious loved ones.

Some might wonder why the Nidaime Hokage would want to protect the loved ones of the very people whose strength he was trying to suppress. In order to understand this one needed to understand the scientific and biological traits of a human and an Uchiha human. For every emotion that a person feels, there is almost, if not always a subsequent physical response or reaction from the person's body. If you are sad or hurt, salty liquid flows out of your eyes in the form of tears. If you are angry or excited, your blood pressure rises, your heart beats faster, and your temperature rises amongst other things. As for an Uchiha, things can get a little bit more dangerous, if an Uchiha kills one of their loved ones, like any human being, they are bound to feel an overwhelming amount of sadness, sorrow, grief and guilt. These emotions at this level of intensity can produce a strong physical reaction to an Uchiha, particularly within the eyes of the select person, hence, the activation of the mangyeko sharingan." he continued after stopping to take a drink of Sake

"But, did you really have to kill your loved ones yourself to feel these emotions, and subsequently, to activate an ultimate sharingan. What if you made a mistake during a mission and it resulted in the death of a loved one, would you not feel all these emotions, sadness, sorrow, grief, and most importantly, guilt? Nonetheless the Nidaime Hokage's plan succeeded for the most part, and Sarutobi Hiruzen followed in his sensei's footsteps blindly, or maybe not so blindly, I have yet to fully comprehend the workings of the old man's mind but I am getting closer and closer to figuring him out as the years went by." he then took a picture and showed to Sasuke, the Uchiha looked at it and recognized three people from it, two were his parents, one was the yondaime hokage, and the last one was an unknown

"who is the woman?" asked the avenger

"the woman's name is kushina Uzumaki, the aka no shi of konoha, and also the second jinchuriki of the Kyubi."

"the second jinchuriki of the kyubi? I thought you were the only jinchuriki of the kyubi."

"let me give you a history lesson. During First Hokage's battle against Uchiha Madara at the Valley of the End, Hashirama, at some point, gained control of the Nine-Tails. To keep the beast in control and gain power for her husband, Uzumaki Mito used a fuinjutsu to seal the Nine-Tailed Fox within herself, becoming the tailed beast's first jinchuuriki. Toward the final years of her life, it was decided that a new host for the Nine-Tails would have to be found, so she selected Uzumaki Kushina for the role due to her special chakra, why do you think she came from Uzushiogakure. And Kushina became the second jinchuuriki of the fox. Well, you already know about me," Naruto explained shocking the avenger, then he paused for a moment before continuing "Both Mito and Kushina were able to live happy lives despite being Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails because no one had known about it. It was closely guarded S-rank secret. Now, you know about my life in the Hidden Leaf."

"if you said she is the second jinchuriki of the kyubi, then what happened? How did the kyubi escape?" asked Sasuke

"Now that is the important part of the question, you see when a female jinchuriki gives birth, her seal is weakened, now someone knew about it and attacked on the day of her pregnency and managed to set the kyubi free, then someone using his Mangekyo sharingan set the bijuu on Konoha. The rest is something you think you know about."

"what do you mean I think I know about? The yondaime died sealing the damned thing inside you."

"well you are right on sealing the damned thing inside of me part, but he ain't dead." he said shocking Sasuke

"that is not important, the important thing is, during Namikaze Minato's reign as Hokage he managed to mend the relations between the village and the Uchiha clan to a certain degree, but after the kyubi attack, the clan was seen in suspicion because they lost the least members, and add to that the sandaime took over again and the Uchiha were once again feeling caged in their own village. You guys finally grew a brain and started preparing a rebellion, Itachi and Shisui were loyal to konoha though and tipped the old crones off who ordered your clan to be killed. And that is the story as you know it."

"Why spare me? Why tell me this? What is your angle?" asked the Uchiha

"my angle is very simple, you and your brother are the bargaining chip that I have against Namikaze. But I also believe that trust is the cause to all the problems in this world, if Tobirama Senju trusted the Uchiha aftre the whole Madara incident, then the massacre would not have happened. If Itachi trusted you with the truth then you would not have defected... etc... etc. I am different from them I trust that you are an adult so I will treat you as such, now that you now the truth you can make your own decisions."

"what do you mean bargaining chip, and what about Itachi?" asked the Uchiha puzzled

"you see, our parents were friends, so I can assure you your mother is alive." said Naruto before showing Sasuke a picture that he took when he sneaked into Uzushiogakure no Sato once during his time after his return trip from **Kosanji den (High sacred montain den)** of the kitsune clan. It had a picture of Mikoto with the woman called Kushina and a younger version of her training

"as for Itachi, well look at this." and he showed Itachi anbu exams, Itachi was using a taijutsu style but Sasuke could not remember seeing it anywhere, it was definetly not the intercepter "you see the taijutsu he is using, it is called the humingbird, the personal style of Namikaze Minato."

"you said someone freed the kyubi from inside the seal on this Uzumaki Kushina, who was it?" asked Sasuke

"he called himself Madara Uchiha, but the real Madara is as dead as doornail" he showed him the journal of Yagura "page fourteen" after a little of reading, Sasuke said "someone with a Mangekyo has a beef with Kiri. The Mizukage is quite good if he managed to leave a drawing of the patern of the Mangyeko" "Yep and now look at this" and he showed him Kakashi's Mangekyo "same pattern, now Obito Uchiha was Kakashi's teammate and he lost his crush Inuzuka Rin because of Kirigakure no Sato. He is our guy"

"I see, now what? I assume you know that I am taking part in whatever it is you are doing against this Obito person."

"well, for now you will stay here and train seriously, I on the other hand will go and save Yagura. After that I will kidnap Itachi and then we can all visit our families, how does that sound for a plan?" asked Naruto and Sasuke merely nodded to his plan and seeing that it had gotten very late both teenagers just slept in their beds for the night.


	6. Chapter 6

_**The ice dragon of Kiri**_

 _ **Chapter 6**_

It had been three months since Naruto defeated the Uchiha, now he was concentrating all his time on the situation in Kiri. And when I say all his time, I mean Besides the once a week date that he has with Konan when she comes to give him his weekly update on the Akatsuki situation, apparently pein, the god of Ame, seemed him worthy of attention and gave orders to either recruit him or kill him on sight. That was funny, well after three months of constant battle, the rebellion managed to take all the Land of mizu no kuni from the loyalists, now all they needed to do was kill Yagura and take back Kirigakure no Sato. Mei took care of handling taking Kiri back, and Naruto volunteered to fight Yagura, surprisingly no one objected, seeing that none of them wanted to fight the 'insane bloodline killing three tailed turtle bastard' as Mei liked to call him. Fortunately for them Yagura had a habit of going to a deserted island in the west of Mizu no kuni, and not even the Anbu, or as they are called TIDE were allowed to join him. And the next visit was in one week, so the plan was pretty straight forward, while Mei and the rest of the rebellion handled Kirigakure no Sato, Naruto handled Yagura, and she if Mei was done before him and had some steam left in her tank, she would come to help Naruto. Now that made Naruto's plan a little more difficult, he had to defeat Yagura on the island, before Mei came back and fake the jinchuriki Mizukage's death, simple enough right.

 **Time skip one week**

It had been one week, and now the battle for Kirigakure was raging, but Naruto was not really interested in that right now, for he was walking towards an island thirty kilometers away for Kiri, it looked normal enough, but he was not even interested in the island itself, he was interested in the giant chakra source that was on it, it had hints of water and coral in it, Yep the sanbi or Isobu, according to Kurama gave its jinchuriki the ability to control water and the ability to create corals as well. Speaking of the devil, he saw the man standing in front of him, but he was not looking at him he was more busy writing in his diary. Despite his height, and child-like appearance, Yagura was an adult male, with a head of messy-grey hair, pink pupiless eyes and what seems to be a stitch-like scar running from under his left eye, all the way down his cheek. He wore a grey, sleeveless shirt with the Kirigakure forehead protector attached to the front, short-sleeved mesh armour over which he also wears a green poncho along with a turquoise sash around his waist, paired with a green apron over his pants. He wears a pair of brown boots, and on his back he carried a staff-like pole weapon with uneven sized hooks with a green flower on the larger end. Seeing this Naruto simply said

"Ah so you are yourself now." the kage looked behind him and said

"so you are the one who took my previous diary, are you here to free me from the masked bastard's control?"

"in a way I am." answered Naruto "how long do you have until you are no longer you?" he asked

"a few minutes, what do you want to talk about." said the kage before sealing his diary on his body.

"Tell me, is Isobu awake as well?" asked the young man to which the Kage's eyes widened slightly before he returned to his usual stoic expression

"which one are you?"

"Kurama's, and she says hi by the way."

"I see, Isobu says hi as well." answered the small kage with a smile before he held his head and after a Sharingan pattern appeared on his eyes for an instant, he looked blankly at his opponent and said

"so you are the bloodline scum they sent to deal with me, I am the yondaime Mizukage, Kenji Yagura, may I know your name?"

"but of course, My name is Hitsugaya Toshiro, and honor to meet you Mizukage sama." said Naruto with a bow. Both opponents took their stance with their respective weapons, the Mizukage with his staff-like pole weapon, and Naruto with his Ensui, then they both charged at each other. Naruto ducked under a wild swing from Yagura and countered with a stab to the Kage's chest, the child like man used his height deficiency and dodged with ease before he tried to rip Naruto's throat from behind with his hooks, a move that was countered by Naruto. Both sides took a few steps back before they started measuring each other again with their expert eyes. Finally Yagura spoke

"I am genuinely impressed with your skills, it seems your reputation preceeds you, Hitsugaya Toshiro san." said the stoic Mizukage causing Naruto to laugh before replying

"it seems so Mizukage sama, now let's take this up a notch shall we." he said taking a stance, an action mirrored by his opponent. The Mizukage took an offensive action first by rotating his staff in front of him and said " **sango senbon (coral senbon)"** sending a volley of grey coral needles at his opponent. Naruto merely countered with his own senbon made from ice and closed the distance between them before engaging the smaller man in a taijutsu fight, an action he regretted since his opponent was no slouch in it and it seemed his opponent could create corals wherever he touched with his **sangle cho (coral palm)** , ducking under a palm strike to the chest, Naruto formed a small twister forms around his wrist. And then uppercuted the grey haired man while screaming " **Shura Senpūken (Asura Whirlwind Fist)**!" the attack sent his opponent flying away, seeing him land rather harshly on the ground, Naruto took Ensui and said " **Tsurara Mai (Icicle Dance)** " and froze water from below the ground and causes them to spring up to form icicles. This attack was sent towards the small kage who countered with his own jutsu the **Sango Renshō (Coral Ripples Rising)** which caused a long row of coral spikes to rise in front of him, both attacks met in the middle causing a huge explosion of ice and coral. Naruto decided to take the initiative by going through some handsigns and said " **Guncho Tsurara (Icicle Flock)** " and froze the moisture in the air into ice and fired an array of ice daggers at his target. The attack connected with Yagura who made no attempt at dodging, Naruto suspect the why behind that action and his suspicions proved to be correct when he felt the bijuu chakra. With a mighty roar, Yagura dispersed the smoke around him and he appeared surrounded by a chakra cloack with three tails swinging behind him lazily. He looked at his opponent and said

"impressive, you are quite powerful, to force me to use sanbi no chakra, you are the first in years to do so, now let's continue shall we **sango ryu (coral dragon)"** and pointing both arms in front of him, he sent a dragon made of coral at his opponent. The armored teen made a hand sign of his own and said " **hyo ryu dan (Ice dragon bullet)** " and he sent his own elemental dragon. Both dragon's fought for domination in the air while Naruto and Yagura exchanged blows on land. Sidestepping a mean left hook from his opponent, Naruto used the arm as leverage to throw the kage over his shoulder, the grey haired man landed a few feet from Naruto who made a single handsign and said " **Rokui Hyōketsujin (Six-Clothed Ice Binding-Array)"** Yagura looked around him and saw six snowflake shuriken imbeded around him in a pentagonal fashion, they glowed for a moment before lines of light connected them, the space between them then was ingulfed in an ice pillar. Naruto looked at his handywork before turning and walking away, he felt the build up of chakra behind him and turned around to see Yagura breaking the pillar away. The Mizukage landed but he no longer looked human, now he looked like a mini sanbi. The Mizukage roared and said

" **now I am a little angry, so I will make sure you die a slow death you insolent worm!"** he then started gathering both Negative and positive chakra in his mouth forming a purple ball, after that he swallowed the ball and the ground buckled under the weight of the chakra. After that he let loose a beam of chakra while roaring " **bijuudama (tailed beast ball)!** ". Seeing this Naruto went through some handsigns and pointed both arms in front of him while saying " **Ryōjin Hyōheki (Woven-Ice Wall)** " he then generates a protective wall of ice by finely weaving threads of ice together. The wall managed to withstand the blast of the attack but Naruto on the other side of the wall was sharpening his senses, not that he needed to since his opponent did not seem to know stealth, the smoke and dust to his right shifted so he looked in that direction but all he saw was a kunai attached to a piece of cloth like a makeshift ballon, he then turned around only to receive a straight punch to the face from the sanbified Mizukage, normally such a hit would have knocked his head off his shoulders, but since Naruto was covering his body with a **hyoton koori no yoroi (Ice release ice armor)** all he felt was a powerful blow to his head. Not wanting to give his opponent any advantage he merely grited his teeth and then answered with his own attack while screaming " **Samegawara Seiken ("Shark Tile True Punch")** " and landed powerful straight punch that is strong enough to send a shock wave through his opponent's back, the blow sent Yagura flying, not wanting to let the momentum of the fight leave him, he manipulated the ice of **Ryōjin Hyōheki (Woven-Ice Wall)** by gathering it at the tip of Ensui before expelling it forward, creating a large blade of ice which tried to impale his opponent, the technique was called **Shinkū no Kōri no Yaiba (Vacuum Ice Blade)**. The technique was supposed to pierce straight through Yagura but the shell of bijuu chakra protected him, all the jutsu did was send the Mizukage flying. Naruto enticipated that and used a single hand sign, numerous jagged icicles form around him while he said " **Hyōdan** **(** **Hail Bullet)**. The icicles are hailed upon Yagura to pierce and wound him but once again the bijuu chakra protected him. Not to be detered Naruto did another had sign and said **"Fubuki Ranbu** **(** **Blizzard Axel)** " A violent blizzard forms around the Mizukage and attempts to rip him apart with its destructive, icy winds, nothing again. Naruto said while going through some handsigns "Not yet, take this you little bastard **Koroshi no Hyōzan** **(** **Killer Iceberg)** " Naruto created a large iceberg and launches it at the enemy, This time he was rewarded with Yagura's screams of pain, before the smaller man was launched in the direction of the sea which he impacted on with a huge splash. Naruto didn't take a moment of rest before he started running on the water surface while running through hand seals at speeds most jounin would kill for, he knew that Yagura was getting ready for the final fight, he felt Yagura charge his chakra so he screamed " **Hyoton dai hyouryu (Ice release great ice dragon)!** " and an Eastern dragon made from ice appeared beside him, jumping on its head he rushed towards where he felt the chakra spike.

 **Scene change**

As Yagura was sinking, he had a rewind of the last few minutes of his fight with the ice user, when he went into version two of his jinchuriki cloack, he expected the fight to end, but his opponent not only protected himself from his **bijuu dama** with an ice wall, something that not even the most skilled users of Doton could boast about, he also managed to shrug of a direct punch from his bijuu empowered hook, not only that but the man also countered with a punch that actually hurt him, HURT HIM, something that not even Tsunade of the Sannin or the yondaime raikage could say they did when they fought in the previous war, he then unleashed a barrage of ice jutsu at him that not only hurled him like a rag doll, but also managed to pierce his defense. Normally, that would anger him, but against his current opponent all he could fell was respect, for his skill, for his will, he could honestly say that had the teen not been a bloodline using abomination he would have been honored to call the man a friend. But alas, now he will show his final form of respect, one that he only showed once before as a token of appreciation, one that he only used as a form of getting rid of annoying pests, his power, the reason why he was called Sanbi no Yagura. He let the beast out.

 **Scene change**

Feeling that Isobu had been released completely, he jumped from the ice dragon and continued to run on his feet, it was only a few seconds later that Isobu appeared. Isobu primarily resembles a large turtle, but with a crab-like shell, spikes all over its body, and three shrimp-like tails. Under its shell, it has red, muscle-like tissue. It has a pair of human-like arms and hands, but no hind-legs. His face is concealed between a large forehead and lower jaw — both of which have spikes. Its eyes are red and have crimson pupils. In the anime, the eyes are red with yellow pupils. Its right eye is constantly closed. Naruto willed the dragon to wrap itself around the Sanbi and to start squeezing it. The sanbi started struggling before he saw Naruto around two hundred meters from him. He quickly prepared a **bijuu dama (tailed beast ball)** and shot it towards Naruto just as the latter finished his hand signs, a gigantic hand came from the water and caught the **bijuu dama (tailed beast ball)** the hand was followed by a muscular scale covered body, with two gigantic wings, a huge tail, and a dragon head with two horns, yes what Naruto used was an Eastern styled dragon made from ice, it was a jutsu that he modeled after Hashirama Senju's **mokujin no jutsu (Wood human jutsu)** , its name was **hyoton dai hyouryu ou no Jutsu (Ice release great ice dragon King jutsu)** , and just like Hashirama did at the Valley of the end, Naruto used his jutsu to return the **bijuu dama** to its sender and as soon as the attack made contact, an enormous explosion took place.

 **Scene change**

Mei Terumi was handling the attack on Kirigakure no Sato, the loyalists without their so called leader were easy picking, so as she was fighting the loyalists she felt spike of chakra, bijuu chakra, she looked at the direction of the right she knew was going to décidé the gates of Kirigakure no Sato, and saw the thrice blasted turtle bastard in his bijuu mode getting squeezed by an Eastern styled ice dragon. She then felt fear when the turtle shot a **bijuu dama** at Toshiro but she was more surprised when the ice user countered by grabbing the ball of chakra with another ice construct. A FREAKING BIJUU SIZED ICE DRAGON, she then felt her jaw hanging low after he sent the **bijuu dama** right back at Yagura the explosion brought her back to reality and she returned to melting the loyalists with her yoton, while hoping for her ice using friend's safety.

 **Scene change**

Flying in the air on top of his dragon of ice, Naruto was not happy, you see during his training, he became somewhat of a perfectionniste, so for his dragon to be missing an arm just because of a **bijuu dama** was a big no no in his book. It did not really mater since the dragon could repair itself with just the moisture in the air but to him it was inacceptable, if Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha were capable of fighting bijuus with their constructs then so can he. Closing his eyes he went through a series of hand seals before saying " **hyouton shiva dai hyouryu ou no Jutsu (Ice release shiva ice dragon King jutsu)** before a glow appeared on the dragon, his arm repaired itself and it looked more sturdy, shiva was not only an ice that was capable of freezing anything in existence, it was also an ice stronger than diamonds. Now his dragon was more then capable of going at it with a bijuu, speaking of bijuus he saw the sanbi preparing another **bijuu dama** , he used a single handsign and his dragon began to gather hyoton chakra in its mouth, a second later both juggenauts had their techniques ready, the Sanbi shot a **bijuu dama** and Naruto said " **hyoton shiva dai hyouryu ou no houkou (Ice release shiva ice dragon King's roar)** " and his dragon shot a beam of ice at the ball of death, both attacks creating a giant explosion, using said explosion as a smokescreen, Naruto had his dragon flying down on the bijuu and the two juggenauts had a wrestling match, a few minutes later the sanbi realised that its opponent was no longer on his ice made mount, looking for its opponent it was given his location by a shout of " **Buraikan (Mighty Reliant Piercing")** " and saw its opponent hurling a pack of water in his hands at him and felt a powerful water shock wave that pierces through its body. The pain that it felt was Incredible, and that pain gave an oppening, an oppening that allowed the ice dragon to grabbing its head and hurl its gigantic body back into the island.

 **Scene change**

Seeing The sanbi being hurled into the island gave Naruto a sense of happiness, seeing that the fight was close to being over, he jumped over his dragon and the he willed into going towards the island were the fight would be decided. When he arrived he saw the sanbi panting slightly, a clear sign if exhaustion, not that he was not exhausteur himself, its just that he could hide it better, after all even if he was an Uzumaki and a jinchuriki to boots, fighting a bijuu was not an easy feat. The sanbi glared at his opponent and then for the first time it spoke

" **impressive ningen, this is the hardest fight I have had in years, now I will show you the terror of the sea, kagenade (shadow stroke)** " and then the sanbi turned itself into a ball and hurled itself at Naruto and his dragon. Naruto made a single handsigns and said " **tsubasa no tate (wing shield)** " and the dragon closed its wings in front of itself and stood its ground, the momentum of the blow caused it to be pushed back a bit, but with a mighty yell, the dragon opened its wing and sent the giant ass turtle away. Naruto didn't give the sanbi any time to rest as he went through some handsigns and said " **hyoton shiva** **Myōjinmon (Ice release shiva Gate of the Great God)"** and manifested a select number of massive ice torii that fall down from above, in order to pin the massive bijuu between the gate and the ground, one from each of its tails, each of its arms and its head. Then he went through more hand seals and said "Not yet **hyoton shiva koori no kusari** **(Ice release shiva ice chains)** " and numerous chains of ice appeared from the ground and wrapped around the bijuu, keeping him checked. Naruto had his dragon fly while he went through more hand seals before raising both his arms to the sky as if he was praying before he looked at his opponent and said " **Suiton** **Tensō Jūrin (water release Subjugation of the Heavens)** : One of my basic powers, as well as its strongest. It allows me to control the weather in the immediate vicinity, or more specifically, the water in the surrounding atmosphere. Thanks to this jutsu the very heavens are at my beck and call." as he was talking many clouds started forming in the sky and quite soon a storm appeared with the island as its center, seeing this Naruto said "now Mizukage sama allow me to finish this **Hyoton shiva Hyaku Hyouryu ame (ice release shiva hundred ice dragon rain)** " and as the name suggested a hundred ice dragon came raining upon the sanbi, the bijuu tried to move but its bindings were too strong for it to be able of moving so it took the full brunt of the attack. When the bombardement ended, the Sanbi was on the ground severely injured but still standing, so Naruto went through more hand signs and said " **Hitsugaya- Shiki Jijun Jutsu** **—** **Kakuan Nitten Suishu (Hitsugaya- Style Sixty - Year - Old Technique** **—** **Kakuan Entering Society with Bliss - Bringing Hands)** " and the on dragon's hand appeared a kanji for sit, the creature put its hand on the sanbi's head and the bijuu started feeling sleepy, that what everyone outside could see, what really happened was completely different

 **Scene change**

Inside the mindscape, Naruto, Kurama, Yagura and Isobu were having a conversation

"Hitsugaya san" started the yondaime "you have to kill me, its the only way for me to atone for my crimes against Kirigakure no Sato. " continued the short Mizukage before Naruto slapped him in his face. The man was shocked before he snarled

"what was that for?" "you were being selfish so I had to snapped you out of it" said Naruto like it was that most natural thing in the world

"selfish?" started Yagura "SELFISH? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN SELFISH, I HAD LED MY COUNTRY INTO A CIVIL WAR, MY DEATH IS THE ONLY ATTONEMENT I CAN OFFER!" roared the Mizukage before Naruto bitch slapped him again

"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? ARE SAYING THAT YOUR LIFE IS EQUAL TO THAT OF ALL THOSE THAT DIED IN THE CIVIL WAR? DON'T FUCK WITH ME!" answered Naruto with equal fervor.

"Then what am I supposed to do... sniff... how am I supposed to attone for it?" asked the Mizukage before he broke down crying. Naruto kneeled until he was at eye level with the kage and said

"by living, the man that did this to kiri has a plan in place, I will need all the help I can get to stop him and it's big." that caused Yagura to look at the teen in front of him and ask "how big are we talking about here, rule the world big?"

"he is planning to resurrect the juubi." Yagura was confused, but Isobu was downright scared shitless.

" **please, tell me that this is a joke, please tell me that some nutjob isn't trying to fuse me and my brothers into that atrocity again.** " asked the sanbi, causing Yagura to look at the bijuu with a questioning gaze before asking "what the hell is going on?"

" **well..."** started Kurama, and after an explanation which I will not bore you guys with, why? Because we all know about Obito's plan, about the juubi, and about the **Tsuki no me keikaku (moon eye plan)** , we all also know why Obito is doing it, so no, I will not repeat what any Naruto fan knows, and if you don't know about it, then what the fuck are you reading fanfiction for?!

" **so let me see If I got this right...** " said Isobu looking at both Naruto and Kurama " **an Uchiha got his ass friend zoned by his teammate, he thinks said teammate got her ass killed, or just doesn't give a damn, and, now he is on a mission to collect all of us, seal us inside that thrice damned statue, resurrect the juubi, become its jinchuriki, and using the power of the beast use a genjutsu that will cause both him and everyone else to live in their little fantasy world, just so that he can fuck said teamate in his head?!"**

" **yup pretty much** " answered Kurama. "guess he didn't hear of masterbating" supplies Naruto

"and this person used me as a Puppet to start a FREAKING rebellion in my country, resulting in thousands of deaths, civilians, shinobi, old and young, just because someone in my governement, decided to use said teammate as a bijuu chakra powered bomb in the war which did not really happen since her teacher got to her and unsealed the chakra with minimal damage?!" continued Yagura

"yeah the Uchiha have always been crazy." said Naruto " **but even this takes the cake."** continued Kurama.

"and you want both me and Isobu to help?" asked Yagura

"" **yup/** yup"" said both Naruto and his partner. Both Yagura and Isobu looked at each other for a moment before nodding

""We're in/ **We're in** "" said both jinchuriki and partner.

"so what do you need from us?" asked Yagura

"We will fake your death, and Isobu you know what you have to do." Said Naruto

" **hai, I will leak me chakra out of Yagura at an Incredible rate, to simulate the effect of the seal breaking upon the death of the jinchuriki, that will leave me drained and in a coma for the next couple of months, so Yagura will heve no access to my chakra, he will need top of the line med nin care, can you give me that? What is your part of the plan?"** asked Isobu to which Naruto just nodded before answering

"i will make a **shi bunshin no Jutsu (blood clone jutsu)** of Yagura and I will kill said clone, Yagura on the other hand will be taken by a friend of mine and I will let you guys on the rest of the plan when you guys wake up." both the turtle and the coral user nodded.

 **Scene change**

Inside the mindscape, it had been an hour long discussion, but outside, it was just a second, Naruto finished suppression the sanbi and the bijuu returned into a simple man, Naruto then dispersed his ice creation and turned the ice into an ice dome around both himself and the kage. A few seconds later, the dome broke under the pressure of the bijuu chakra, whenit was over Naruto appeared with Yagura's body in his arms and he showed it to Mei and her possy, before he bid them farewell. A party was made in his honor and all of Kiri considered him their hero.

 **Scene change**

In a cave somewhere in river country, stood a gigantic statue with ten fingers, on each of those fingers but two of them stood an individual with a black coat with red clouds. This was the first meeting of the akatsuki in real person in well over a year. The members were:

Itachi Uchiha onyx eyes under which were long, pronounced tear-troughs. He had jet-black hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail and his face was framed with centre-parted bangs that extended to his chin; the ponytail and bangs grew longer over the years. His overall appearance is very similar to Sasuke's. As a member of Akatsuki, he wore the standard Akatsuki cloak and a slashed Konoha forehead protector to symbolise his broken ties with the village. The cloak's high collar would obscure his ponytail. He would sometimes unbutton his cloak to mid-chest and rest his left arm there, rather than in the sleeve. Under his cloak he wore clothes similar to the rest of Akatsuki: mesh armour with navy accents under an identical T-shirt with a simple white belt around the waist and dark blue pants. On his right ring finger was his Akatsuki ring, which was red and bore the kanji for "vermilion" (shu). He wore purple nail polish on his fingers and toes and a necklace that had three silver rings with red gems inside them.

Hoshigaki kisame Tailed Beast without a Tail" (O o Motanai Bijū) was a very tall, muscular shinobi, and was the tallest member in Akatsuki. He had a distinctive shark-like appearance, complete with pale blue-grey skin. He also has small, round, white eyes, gill-like facial markings under his eyes, and actual gills on his shoulders, and sharp triangular teeth, much like the other members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. He also styled his blue hair in the form of a shark fin. As a member of Akatsuki, he also wore dark-purple nail polish, He wore a modified version of Kirigakure's forehead protector, which covered his ears as well. After defecting from the village, he donned the typical cloak members of Akatsuki wore, and underneath it he was bare-chested. He also wore a brown sash across the front and back of his cloak to hold Samehada in place. He wore his Akatsuki ring on his left ring finger, bearing the kanji for "south" (nan) which was yellow in colour.

Akasuna No Sasori

Bakuton No DeidaraDeidara had slanted blue eyes and very long blond hair which he wore drawn into a half ponytail with the rest hanging down freely. The bang hanging over his left eye is what concealed his eye scope signifying that he was a long-range fighter. He also had mouths in each of the palms of his hands which were used for moulding his clay and under his cloak he wore a utility belt with two bags where he carried all of his clay. On the left side his chest he had a large, stitched-up mouth for setting off his self-destruct technique. On his right index finger was his Akatsuki ring, which bore the kanji for "blue or green" (ao) and was teal in colour. He wore black nail polish on his fingers and toes. While joining Akatsuki, Deidara wore a blue and grey kimono jacket with a fishnet undershirt inside and khaki pants with sandals and a belt-like pouch with a chain. His blond hair was also tied into a lower ponytail and an Iwa forehead protector

Kakuzu was a tan-skinned and tall man, easily standing as the second tallest member of Akatsuki. Noticeably, despite his advanced age, he still appears as a man well within his prime, retaining a very muscular build. He wore a white hood and a black mask, with his eyes being the only visible part of his face. Underneath, his mouth was stitched together at the edges (giving him a glasgow smile) and he had long dark brown hair. His eyes have an unusual colouring: green irides, no pupils and red sclerae. His clothing included the traditional Akatsuki cloak and the forehead protector of his home village with a scratch in the middle which symbolised that he was no longer loyal to it. He also wore brown nail polish and his dark green Akatsuki ring with the kanji for "north" (hoku) was placed on his left middle finger. His entire body was covered with various stitches and predominantly appeared to be sewn together. This was a result of the unique technique that he possessed — the Earth Grudge Fear.

Hidan Hidan has medium-length grey hair that was slicked back and distinctive purple eyes. He wore his Akatsuki cloak open with no shirt, only pants under it revealing his Yugakure forehead protector around his neck and Jashin amulet. He also wore dark green nail polish and his orange Akatsuki ring on his left index finger, which bears the kanji for "three" (san). When not fighting, he was always seen with his Triple-Bladed Scythe on his back

Zetsu has two sides: Black Zetsu's true form is a completely black, humanoid figure lacking any hair or visible orifices, made up of a black mass which it can shape and resize at will. The black mass contains two yellow eyes, which lack any visible sclerae or pupils, and it occasionally shapes itself to form a mouth with jagged teeth. Black Zetsu appears to have only retained one eye after being placed within White Zetsu by Madara. When together, the two Zetsu were easily distinguished by the two Venus flytrap-like extensions that emerged from their sides, enveloping their head and upper body as a shell, which they were able to open and close. Beneath these extensions, White Zetsu had short green hair and a single yellow eye. The right half of his body was covered by Black Zetsu, whose leg was originally White Zetsu's own right leg. Under their Akatsuki cloak, they wore blue pants and sandals, and had both legs wrapped in bandages. Zetsu's green Akatsuki ring, which bore the kanji for "sign of the boar" (gai), was worn on Black Zetsu's little finger. Zetsu's fingernails were painted pink and his toenails, were blue.

Unlike Black Zetsu, White Zetsu had human-like facial features and a proper eye, as well as unusually rounded teeth. When he was first created, his Venus flytrap-like protrusions were not fully formed, being white in colour as well as sticking out all along the right side of his body. When the two halves split apart, their plant-like extensions would separate and hang from the waists of both. Any clothing they were wearing, including their Akatsuki mantle, would split along with them, usually causing them to discard their torn clothing. When either of the halves emerged from the ground while split, their plant-like extensions would surround them in a circular formation. The two also demonstrated the ability to grow an additional leg, though deformed, from their white body mass to substitute for their missing half while split.

"what the hell is going here, where the fuck is leader sama, he better get his ass over here or I will sacrifice his ass to Jashin sama!" screamed the jashinist.

"Hidan, shut up or I will kill you." said his stoic comrade

"fuck you kakuzu, like you can kill me anyway..." grumbled the immortal before shutting up.

"as much as I hate to agree with the barbarian, I really hate to wait or make people wait." said the suna Nuke-Nin .

"sasori no danna, you have to calm yourself, perhaps if you did real art like me you would not be so stressed. Like I always say art is a bang"said the blonde Iwa nin.

"I am doing real art, not some of that pop art you call real art, and art is eternal beauty." answered the puppeteer and the art duo started one of their eternal debates about the true Nature of art.

"Oi Itachi san, do you know, what this is about?" asked the sharklike swordsman

"Hn, perhaps leader sama would like to tell us to start hunting the jinchuriki."

"now that would be very fun indeed, too bad the kyubi gaki got himself killed, I saw that with some time he could have become a legend, or at least some to give a good fight." said the swordsman with a smirk.

"Hn" answered the stoic Uchiha. After a moment appeared both leader of Akatsuki pein and his partner Konan. They as usual wore their stoic masks as faces. When he saw that everyone was here he looked at his organisation and said

"I have called you guys here so that I can inform you of a recent developpement, the civil war in Kiri is over and the Yondaime Mizukage Yagura is dead, that will set us back for three years."

"ho, so little turtle bastard got himself killed, who did the deed." asked Kisame since even he knew that Yagura was stronger than him, and that was without his bijuu, 'freaking annoying corals.' he thought. So the news that someone is stronger than the bloodline killing weirdo, even if he knew that he was just a puppet, and working for the puppeteer, intrigued him. Pein looked at Zetsu who noded and said

" **it was done by Hitsugaya Toshiro** , it was a very good fight don't you think, **Shut up! Anyway, we managed to get some of the footage of the fight** , pretty sweet ne?" said Zetsu in his bivocal voice, or was it two people, you never know with this guy. After that he showed them some of the footsteps of the fight. Everyone was impressed, soon enough the Akatsuki members stated their own comments on the fight.

"he is very powerful, he will make a great sacrifice to Jashin sama!" yelled the immortal priest, which caused his partner to growl before saying

"Hidan shut up, we are not going after him, no matter the bounty, so just count us out." he said causing the rest of the Akatsuki to look at him, since he normally never let a bounty, no matter how hard it is. Seeing the looks from most of Akatsuki, the taki nin said

"look, I know what you guys are thinking, I might not be the strongest in the Akatsuki but I am the eldest, so listen to me very carefully, I have fought Hashirama Senju and lived, and can assure you guys that this Hitsugaya Toshiro is at least as strong as that thrice blasted treehugger, but can assure you he is not Hashirama at all, he is closer to someone else."

"who?" asked the Uchiha

"Madara Uchiha, that kid gives of the same feeling as Madara fucking Uchiha." and that caused the rest of Akatsuki to start talking among themselves. It continued for a while before Pein decided to put an end to the discussion.

"silence" he started, his voice not being raised an octave, but all heard him, when he saw them silent he continued "what are the réactions to him Zetsu?" he asked the plant man

" **flee on sight** , all the village **have him as a** Flee on sight **in their bingo book.** " answered the plant man

"I see, continue with your duties, and avoid Hitsugaya at all costs. When it is time to start we will meet again." and on that note ended the akatsuki meeting.


	7. Chapter 7

_**the ice dragon of kiri**_

 **Notice of rewrite.**

 **dear readers.**

 **I have realised that this story is wating its potentiel, so I have decided to do a rewrite of this story. I want you to know that I am not abandonning It, all there is that I am rethinking my approach to this story and after a few weeks I will have the new version up and running. As for my other stories I want you guys to know that I am not abandonning any of them all there is that my exams are around the corner so I need to focus on them.**

 **Thank you for your understanding.**

 **Immortal1145**


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